• Elegant map SND music onto 3d graph = formal beauty
• Rigorous sound thoroughly mapped, accuracy
• Playful repetition, subversion, change, stillness
• Virtual mid 90s = early WWW years, music extrapolated into digital space, felt at best not as airless, dessicated but as limitless, alien, thrilling // exemplary: Jacob’s Optical Stairway, latterly: SND
• Syncopated UKG DNA, beats dance
• Inverted SND share heritage of UKG w/ D-step, function as latter’s mirror image (percussive action)
• Radical no bass, mind over matter (or vice-versa perhaps)

SND/mark fell
snd@discogs
makesnd.com

13 - 15 November 2008 / 19:45
Barbican Theatre

World premiere live performances of songs from Scott Walker’s seminal works including Tilt and Drift.

These special concerts, produced by Walker himself, will be set and designed for the Barbican Theatre stage, and include orchestra, Scott’s band, and feature special guest vocalists performing his songs.

Please note: Scott Walker will NOT be performing.

Directed by Ann-Christin Rommen
Concepts by Scott Walker
Sound Production by Scott Walker and Peter Walsh

Link

The Wire’s October 2003 edition was rather a rich one: it featured a decent (and extrememly rare) interview with Rhythm & Sound alongside a feature on Miles Davis in the 1970s. It was also the month that Rhythm & Sound released W/The Artists and The Versions, two CDs featuring vocal and instrumental versions of  eight tracks, each with a different guest vocalist. The review was written by Ian Penman and it’s a gem, though I realise that some people will detest it. Anyway, here it is for you to judge:

A side B side, voice and bass, commingled rhythm and sensurround vox; ambidextrous tagteam Rhythm & Sound - Berlin mix meisters Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald (who’re also the spectres behind Basic Channel and Main Street) have this instantly recognisabl, feature up the spine, dub whirlpool, gauzily narcotic and organically hi-tech hauntological sound.

Not that the eight different singers on the Artists compilation become mrere ghosts - grainy day singers nos 1-8 -in their own histories: levelled out so that one is all, and all sound the same: more ‘doubles’ spun from the One Sound that the R&S Two hae archly crafted and now graft onto all and undread. This is not numbers theorymasquerading as return to roots. The R&S settings are more like shafts of aetherial light. Ernestus and Von Oswald’s dubble channel operates around a central core of awe: mixing desk as reverential medium, elemental tablet, atom heart monitor, sonic crypt. The mix desk used as secret recess, allowing the singers their own discrete release of tales spun. the R&S desk is more tabernacle than tablature; these sung tablets reverberate with untimely syntax (king, queen, evil, suffering) and such chill words set a collective fire. Unlike some nu Euro dub, R&S are more candle shadow than fluorescent glare. Sung air trembles - flush of skin, flutter of pulse, knot of caressed, and enormously amplified.

Nuance is all ehre: each tone - slingshot phrases of righteous ire, biblical cadence, sufferer’s woe, lover’s shock - is attentivelywoven into the (a)morphology of the R&S mix; airy layers curl palindromically around the arc of each aching plaint, a song so drenched and sodden and honeycombed, it can sound like a single voice leading a tribe of thousands through sunparched land. No monotony, though: all due tones are represented. Cornell Campbell and Jennifer Lara duet (at a distance) as King and Queen of their own zones. Paul St Hailare, aka Tikiman, and The Chosen Brothers front the Rasta camp, while Shalom makes history on “We Been Troddin”. Lovers will be rocked by Love Joy’s “Best Friend”; and - the one I can’t get out my singsong head - Jah Batta’s “Music Hit You” is a healing plea/sure.

Encrypted but not cryptic for its own elitist s(t)ake, the tender logic of R&S’s echo-nomy means that cinders from the apocalypse of roots strife get this deeply enriched and resonant afterlife: 25-plus years on and dub/roots has this improbable afterlife, this rich new klanguage, in the Euro marketplace. Which makes Berlin something like Paris used to be for post-war US jazz musicians: interzonal redemption, devotional oddy-sigh. Literal crypts where the beat not only goes on, but the nu tech kids on today’s block have the micro means to ensure that not only does the code survive, but thrives, anew.

However, given that the whole X-static point of rhythm & Sound seems to be how dub sussuration is ingrained, commingled, gloriously, porously into songform - that is its spell, its signature, its singularity - I’m not sure that I see the wisdom of any separate  Versions set. It doesnt go off on some wild new trip - staccato knots of crazy lightning, or seriously elongated trance path - so what you’re left with sounds like not much more (or less) than the awesome Artists tracks with the artists erased. The second disc versions feel unduly dry, claustrophic, too near the pro forma of other nEuro dub for my taste.

No two ways about it, though: right now R&S’s W/The Artists is the nu roots paradigm. Amour and apocalypse. Rebirth and reverb. As one line here puts it: “You’ve got to change your programme…” I ah-ah-ah… gree.

Penman really savours his wordplay, but the number of allusions and ideas that get folded into his commentary along the way more than justifies the occasional indulgence. There’s also that reference to hauntology long before it was taken up as a theme a couple of years ago. I wonder if he ever rethought his view of the Versions disc: it’s the very, relatively unembellished, absence of the singers that makes the disc so fascinating, a statement of absence and thus hugely resonant. For me, what this review does is make vivid again music that, though loved, had verged upon becoming exhausted through over-familiarity. Thank you Mr Penman.

Sometimes the Jazz Cafe gets too crowded, my experience with Spearhead a while back being a case in point. It was just about alright with Tinariwen though Is and I could have done with a bit more space. Still, we really enjoyed this one. I enjoying dancing both with Is and later on my own. The patient, driving minimalism verged on the magnificent. The costumed theatricality, the use of multiple guitars, electric bass and hand percussion forestalled any questions of authenticity (whatever that means). Brilliant.

I last saw Laurie Anderson perform at the Dominion, a venue that’s been occupied for god knows how many years by the wondrous spectacle that is the Queen musical - let there be rock, rocks-r-us or whatever it’s called. As far as I can recall, it was preceded by the Disney Beauty and the Beast musical. Poor, poor Dominion. I’m a fan of Laurie Anderson, though more of her earlier work, namely United States parts I-IV and Mister Heartbreak. I didn’t particularly enjoy my first taste of her in concert, finding her a tad too quizzical and clever. After so many years though, it was time to see how she’s developed so Is and I headed off to the Barbican theatre to find out. Is and I differed a bit while overall enjoying the concert.

I admired her fairly overt political commitment. She intelligently registered horror at the current American regime, and the terror it’s inflicted upon the peoples it’s subjugating in its quest for control of dwindling oil. Is was uncomfortable with this, fair enough, in the preaching to the converted aspect. I think we both really enjoyed the music which was frequently dramatic and, surprisingly, seemed to have registered some recognition for minimal techno tropes, even perhaps dubstep in its deep electronic bass lines. There was also some beautiful interaction between Laurie Anderson’s violin and the Eyvind Kang on viola. Not forgetting the brilliant Skuli Sverrisson and Peter Scherer - she undoubtedly has great taste in musicians. I’ll be interested to hear the album when it’s eventually released - I’ve just checked her website and it’s not ’til summer 2009! (Is this the dragging footsteps of major record companies? Seems odd to be touring an album that won’t come out for more than a year…)

My previous phone was a four year old Nokia a friend gave me - it was small, light and did calls and texts fine… Three years ago I bought a secondhand Sony Clie PDA (just when Sony stopped making PDAs). At that time I was doing large numbers of music reviews and wanted a combined device to listen and write on. Turned out I had to buy third party software to do so and neither the stylus nor the built-in physical keyboard were particularly satisfying in use. I persisted for quite a while with it. The Clie did however have a memory stick reader and bluetooth so I could catch up on reading by transfering PDFs and text files I’d saved on my laptop.

The iPhone is a thing of wonder, but it’s also very much a version one product for the reasons detailed below. It may be that I’m mistaken in some of these observations, but I did purchase and download a copy of the David Pogue’s Missing Manual for iPhone to assist me in identifying some of the less obvious details (which it mostly failed to do).

Bad Stuff

• Lack of note syncing. You can write notes in Mail and on the iPhone but neither will update - only way is to email notes. Not the end of the world, but not great.
• Limited Mail functionality. I expected the iPhone to mirror my MacBook Pro’s (MBP) setup complete with rules and subfolders. Instead it places all emails under particular email accounts in no apparent order (though I’d guess it’s by date/time). That’s pretty annoying if you get 50+ emails (personal, business and mailing lists) in multiple accounts each day. As part of this I expected that if I deleted an email from my MBP it would not download later to the iPhone. It does and then I have to delete it there again. Speaking of deleting… it’s a huge pain because each email has to be individually erased with a two part gesture that doesn’t always work. Engadget however have seen v2 of the iPhone software is going to sort this - thank goodness!
• Safari bookmark syncing seems to be one way. I first began to note items I’ve seen in RSS feeds by emailing them to myself so I could access from the MBP. Each time I did this from Safari it would open up a new email which was too much hassle for more than a very small number of items. So I began to bookmark in Safari thinking that these would sync back to the MBP to view. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but the sync appears to be one way, from the MBP to the iPhone. Ouch. I’ve since discovered that starring newsfeed entries in Google Reader enables me to refer to them in Firefox and I’m fine with that solution.
• Safari has to reload pages if it’s quit to access another iPhone programme. This is annoying if I’m out of signal range as I can’t then access previously loaded content until I’m back in signal range. Some of us take the underground which makes this a significant issue.
• Safari quits fairly often. Accessing straightforward websites like muse-ings (which uses a standard blogger template) and Lovefilm results in repeated crashes to the point where I’ve given up visiting them outside of Google Reader.
• PDF functionality is almost non-existent. The only way to read PDFs is to email them to yourself. One advantage of a pocket-size multimedia device is the opportunity to catch up on reading while on the move (see above point). When switching to other applications in the middle of a PDF means returning to Mail then reopening the PDF and finding your place as it doesn’t otherwise remember it.
• No eBook functionality. I want to read books on my iPhone! Sending a short PDF by email to my phone is okay, but scrolling through anything longer like a short story or novel to find my place is so laborious it’s a non-starter. ‘Books‘ looks promising, but I don’t want to jailbreak my phone. As sites like The Burgomeister’s Books provide digital copies of Borges, Pynchon, Ballard and the like, I’d love to carry a mini reference library around with me. Currently not possible, but I’ll be buying the first decent application once it’s available. BTW don’t get me started on the likes of the lame Penguin implementation which demands installation of PC-only Microsoft Reader… Oh and there’s an interesting discussion of the iPhone as eBook reader on O’Reilly.
  Update: further investigation reveals Reader by (db)element, a free service that allows users to upload books, save and format them to read in the iPhone’s browser. The site enables users to resize text and, crucially, bookmark their place to return to later. The downside unfortunately remains that you have to have access to the net as the books are stored remotely - if you’re on the underground or out of network range you can’t read your books… Still, it’s a great little service

  

• No Flash. Yes, yes I know it’s a battery drain, but I want the option to be able to visit my photography galleries (built in Lightroom’s Flash format), Flickr, etc even if it does use up my battery more quickly.
• Wired syncing only. I don’t want to have to find my lead to sync with the MBP. Annoying.
• Headphones. Apart from the recessed socket for which I had to buy an adaptor for my Ultimate Ears super.fi 5EB (ahem) headphones, I do like the mic functionality on the headphones lead, but the quality of the sound for music reproduction is atrocious and thus makes them unusable. I wish there was a third party solution to combine mic with my other headphones.
  
  
  
  Update: found it at the Apple Store and bought one, manufacturer is Shure. Only downside is length of wiring, but I have deliciously powerful headphones and all the functionality of the original, crappy Apple iPhone ones.
• No copy and paste. Would be very useful in a number of places, particularly notes to enable reordering of to dos, etc.
• Some visual feedback annoying in current format. The iPhone provides very similar visual feedback to things like increasing and decreasing the volume. The problem is that the message is too large and takes slightly too long to fade away. Whilst it’s visible it obscures anything you’re trying to look at. Either make it smaller, put it to one side, make it more transparent or/and fade it more quickly.
• Waking. Why do I have to press a physical button and also slide to unlock? Surely the pressing of the button should suffice. I don’t see why this is a two step process.
• Connecting. I received my iPhone on a Sunday morning. I wasn’t able to register until Sunday evening because 02 were upgrading their servers. Disappointing. The next weekend we went to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. Although the hotel’s wireless connection provided trouble-free access, Edge and the phone connection were intermittent at best and frequently reported ‘no connection’. Same experience next weekend in Blakeney, north Norfolk. Occasionally when I’m at home (with wireless internet clearly available on the MB and MBP), my iPhone opts for Edge and I have to manually remind it that I’ve a network available via the Settings. Not a biggie, but mildly annoying.
• Camera. Is decent enough in good light. Shame there’s no video, but not a big deal. My main problem with the camera is the lack of a physical exposure button which makes taking many pictures difficult. Forget taking the standard ‘me and my friends’ shot as it’s virtually impossible. This could be easily solved by providing the countdown functionality afforded by Photobooth.
• Physical design. Is gorgeous, but as with so much Apple hardware, it’s easily damaged. Within 5 days of getting my iPhone I’d dropped it twice. I don’t consider myself to be an overly-clumsy soul, but the case is so smooth it very easily slips out of my fingers. It now has two small scratches on the glass and a small chip from the lip of the headphone socket :-( iPhone sleeve ordered and on its way… Update: sleeves proved too fugly. I’m now resigned to being very careful in handling it. I did, however, buy a screen cover which is virtually invisible, but does make the screen less prone to grease build-up.
• Little bits and bobs of badness:
  • Slideshow crashes after three images.
  • Maps has crashed a few times.
  • I’ve had to force reboot the whole iPhone four times so far and force quit some apps a number of times.
  • I’ve given up on trying to log into my LoveFilm account.
  • Data roaming should be easier to access.

Good stuff

• Films. Using the inestimable Handbrake I’ve ripped the two DVDs of Kraftwerk’s Minimum Maximum, Brothers Quays’ short films, Last Year at Marienbad, THX 1138, Ivan’s Childhood, The Conversation. They all look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone screen.
  
  
  
• Speakers. The sound quality is of course poor, but I get to act like a yoof and listen to Grime (currently really enjoying Durrty Goodz) on the top deck of the bus. Yes, I’m joking.
• Screen. It’s much easier to read that the MBP screen in bright daylight. Not sure why this is, but reading from it isn’t difficult. On the other hand trying to take pictures in bright light is difficult.
• iPod. Coverflow. Sigh… :-) Oh and I’ve just discovered a lovely new feature! I listen to a lot of instrumental music, but a minute ago I chose to listen to Kraftwerk’s The Mix. I tapped on the album cover and without any input from me it displayed the lyrics to the currently playing song (The Robots) as well as the progress bar. Very nice.
• Phone. A pleasure to use.
• Safari RSS reader is too basic. I tried continuing to use my current setup of browser-based Bloglines and Vienna (a good open source RSS reader) on the MBP. This didn’t really work satisfactorily. So I migrated to Google Reader and haven’t looked back - it’s a great application, particularly the ‘mark as read when scrolling past’ feature and Google’s ability to translate everything into mobile-friendly formatting. Speaking of which, while iPhone’s Safari is very impressive, I much prefer Google’s reformatted version for ease of use and ability to access content (and not be prey to style).
• iTunes Music Store. Suffice to say I’ve just bought my first album in mp3 download format (Benga’s Diary of an Afro Warrior). Very easy to use, pleasing ability to quickly listen to 30 second samples. I’ve used this version much more frequently than the one on my MBP already. Tip: the final Cabaret Voltaire (double) album is available at the moment for £4.93 - it’s called The Conversation and it’s brilliant. Update: the Benga album disappeared mysteriously from my iPhone, but the Apple Store were very helpful in restoring it. (Odd given that the default advice is if you haven’t backed it up you’ll have to repurchase…) I did realise, however, that iTMS MP3s are ripped at only 120kbps (AAC) which is rather below my 192kbps policy. That hasn’t stopped me downloading the odd rare thing like the Von Südenfed remixes from the band’s 12″s.
• Mobile internet. Once I’d sorted myself out with Google Reader (see above) I became an impressed, happy bunny. It’s very, very impressive.
• Ease of use. Okay it’s a cliche by now, but the interface is mostly an absolute pleasure and encourages use of the iPhone wherever possible.
• Maps. Lovely stuff, particularly in v1.5 allowing location, bookmarks, etc. I wish and think Google really should facilitate tight integration with public transport systems re providing directions not just for cars… I’ve bookmarked tfl.gov.uk, but it’s an extra few steps…

Things I’d like to see

Apart from addressing the issues referred to above

• A voice memo/general recording app would be great - three quick clicks (or perhaps one long click) on the headphone remote would trigger record, three more would cease recording. MP3 named by default with time and date and added to iPod in a playlist called ‘voice memo’.
• I’d LOVE to be able to play tunes off the iPhone into my stereo via my Airport Express (even if it proved a significant memory drain).
• I’d like to see my encrypted password app (Wallet) ported.
• eBook reader as referred to above.

Conclusion

For many of the above ‘bad reasons’ I can’t wait for June to arrive to start purchasing third party apps to address these issues. No wonder Apple released the SDK, I assume their in-house resources were insufficient to develop proper applications in these areas. v2 of the iPhone OS looks heavily weighted towards accessing the corporate market which isn’t of much interest to the likes of me. It might look like the bad stuff significantly outweighs the good stuff, but in fact I’m tremendously happy with my iPhone - it really is a gorgeous, brilliantly-conceived device and, for the most part, a pleasure to use. Lack of 3G hasn’t proved that big a deal, I mostly use the web via mobile access pages (Google Reader, Wikipedia’s search page, etc) and these are small-footprint portals which are generally quick to load.

Thank you Is :-) Oh and thank you Joski for giving me the small Nokia which provided me with so many years of reliable service!

Thomas Strønen is my favourite percussionist. He’s the William Gibson cyberpunk of drummers. He sounds like the future in detailed, alien fascination.

Check his work: Pohlitz, Food (particularly the latest, pared down version that recorded Molecular Gastronomy) and Humcrush (duo with Stâle Storløkken).

Thomas Strønen’s website

These are fantastic designs. At time of writing I haven’t quite figured out whether they’re in print or are speculative designs. If the former, I’m definitively going to buy copies. I adore their elegant simplicity. The designer is Nicole Paterson who writes as follows:

A series of book covers and interior spreads, a contemporary take on Dante’s classic poems. I wanted to create a set of book covers that did not use images from the Bosch Hell painting, or any images of Dante and Virgil that are normally found on covers for the Divine Comedy.

I was inspired by Dante’s use of mathematics and architecture in describing Hell, Heaven and Purgatory. I employed simple geometric shapes and color to represent these places, while still keeping the design simple, and allowing the reader to use their imagination when reading these vivid poems.

Her Flickr-based portolio.
Via the Creative Review blog.

I’m in the mode for heavy music, fuelled in part by my recent acquisition of a pair of Ultimate Ears super.fi 5 extended bass headphones (or personal monitors as they like to call them, heh heh). Listening to them is at first like walking into a bass-heavy club. My trusty Shure E3Cs, part of which snapped off in my bag not so long ago, ouch, hence this purchase, failed on the dubstep test - some bass parts just weren’t there. Only downside of them are their size, they are a tad outlandishly large for ear-canal headphones and I might have hesitated if I’d physically seen them rather than ordering them online. Here’s my current heavy listening playlist:

• 2562 / A Made Up Sound - all the 12″s thus far available on one playlist. Can’t wait for the new Techno Dread/Enforcers 12 upcoming imminently and Boomkat’s mention of an album in the pipeline has this sucker hot with anticipation…
• Benga / Diary of an Afro Warrior - been loving this one since I bought it.
• Burial / Burial - ’nuff said, prefer this to the second by a country mile.
• John Coltrane / Live In Japan - roiling out there’ness from ‘66.
• Krust / Decoded - what happened to Krust? This is a great 12″ offshoot from the patchily brilliant Coded Language.
• Miles Davis / On The Corner + Dark Magus - the heaviest bastards from the heaviest fucker of them all.
• Scorch Trio / Luggumt - leadweight power trio features Raoul Björkenheim, Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love. If those names don’t conjure a little thrill, you’re deaf or dead.
• Signal / Robotron - this is best when it’s deafening you.
• T++ / All the 12″s - Torsten Pröfrock is god. My playlist includes his characteristically brilliant remix of Shackleton’s Death Is Not The End as well.
• Terje Isungset / Iceman Is - ice is the new metal. Or something.
• Various / … Compiled - Chain Reaction compilation, fairly rare, very heavy.
• Von Südenfed / Tromatic Reflexxions - played this to death, forgot about it, now resurrected it. Wish I could source the remixes, would love to hear ‘em, would pay to download them. Update: just spotted that they’re available on iTMS :-)

Everyone raves about Neu! but I’ve always had a personal preference for Harmonia’s wistful, sunshine-hazy beauty. I’d wager expectations were high for this reunion. Despite being very tired, I wasn’t disappointed. Tim even found it transcendent, Is quite enjoyed it I think. I’d seen Michael Rother perform with Dieter Moebius at the ICA the year before last, but this date was different. Centre stage stood Roedius, white-shirted, a little portly, shaven-headed and ever so tall. Particularly alongside the diminutive Moebius. And Rother, how the hell is he so handsome and well-preserved? I suspect a Dorian Gray-like portrait in the attic myself.

The music was a fascinating mix of ambient pieces and percussive rhythm-based tracks. The former outnumbered the latter something like two to one to the frustration, I think, of a small section of the crowd. Someone shouted ‘turn it up’ at one point causing Roedelius to turn from his red keyboard and grin at the audience. I was struck by how rigorous the ambient pieces were. No noodling, instead swathes of sonic resonance, a sense of quiet structure and unfolding narrative balanced with a sense of the becalmed. Hmm.

The screen behind the trio displayed an occasionally enjoyable visuals whose greatest impact was generated by a slow revealing and tracking over of photographs taken of the group at the time of recording of their two seminal albums. They encored once with DeLuxe’s opening track, Immer Wieder and played its gorgeous, statuesque melody for all it was worth. Immer Wieder translates appropriately as ‘always again’.