Aclds - Fuadain Liesmas

Under the radar, off the map...such terms hardly do justice to Chris Douglas' non-place in the what we might call 'the music world', even the 'underground electronic' version. No surprise then that Fuadain Liesmas  has not, to my knowledge, appeared in any end-of-the-year charts. As Dalglish, O.S.T. and Scald Rougish, Douglas has persisted in making music for any reason but the desire for publicity or, perhaps, praise. Not that I believe he wouldn't welcome recognition. Searching for reviews of this album I've found no mention other than on this blog and, of course, Boomkat (because their job is to try and sell music). 

Describing the carefully crafted sounds here would be a challenge for most would-be critics, yet that's no reason for it's apparent invisibility; many writers are better equipped than me to talk about 'abstract' sound and do so regularly. Nonetheless, here I am...on the edge of...reviewing what eludes easy categorisation. 

Negin Giv, being just 30secs long, might be a good place to start (and end?) since it is, in microcosm a snapshot of Douglas' methodology....his ability to...punch holes in ...the space-time continuum...? If I improvise, forgive me. Free-flowing word scrambles might suit talk of Jazz, but  Fuadain Liesmas being so meticulously composed I feel duty-bound to attempt the same in writing. And fail. 

OT-IntVxEs 1 is typical of what goes on here, which is not to suggest that it's all predictable from the outset (only in...approach to sound). Rather, I mean, in creating melancholic (?) tones which in other hands would signal mere ambient eternal drift somnambulism, Douglas scatters brittle components throughout. No sleeping here. No daydreaming 'bliss'. Only on Hrm Clng or Dtn#09_Ed do we find what feels like a place of rest, albeit one derived from an afterlife (?). After what? This is life, in all it's restless, skittish, uncertain gravity. 

Perhaps ambiguity renders such albums unpopular; not 'difficult listening' - that, surely, is in the ear of the beholder. Albums that gain attention often shout something, even if in a thoroughly minimalist, quiet fashion. Is the popularity of Ambient a result of what many perceive to be a  politically turbulent world? An escape from that madness? As if the world has ever been stable. Whatever, the thing to do is make music which speaks of either 'the street', or technological trickery in the service of an adrenaline boost. Songs, naturally, are always in favour. Fuadain Liesmas offers no such musical certainties. It's neither flash nor pleasingly serene. Ultimately, I can only say 'It is what it is'. You can get a taste from the stream below, but to fully savour what Chris Douglas has created, I suggest you buy the CD from here.

Scald Rougish - Idioal Oifrmech

What can I say about Idioal Oifrmech? That question has been plaguing me for the last few weeks. Now I play it again...to try and 'understand'. Understand what? Shouldn't music be easier? It should not be hard work...

...but this album is not hard work...

...unless you choose to write about it, which I did, or rather knew I would as soon as it arrived...

...by now your finger is poised to click the mouse, to get away from my...confused musings...perhaps because you expected a review, a normal review (which suggests you are not a regular reader of Include Me Out). Still...

...something...disturbing...is coming out of my speakers...not just coming out but writhing inside them and erupting...escaping a kind of hell on my hard drive...the track is Id¬“≤iøß–oal, the first on Side B...is that a cello being scraped in amongst the digital storm? Perhaps...

...I listen hard...

...listening hard is a requirement if Idioal Oifrmech is to mean anything...no, not 'mean'...if you are to gain anything....yes, 'gain'...there's a lot to gain...the attention to detail by Chris Douglas is astounding, as usual, although to say 'as usual' of anything he does is a great disservice to his art...

...I fear that no amount of well-chosen words can do this album justice...not from me, at least. To make matters worse, there are no sound clips available, rendering the usual reviewer's get-out clause of 'just listen for yourself' impossible. I suggest you find other examples of his sound art and decide for yourself whether you wish to invest in Idioal Oifrmech. Should you know his work, you will probably do so anyway. It's on the Ge-Stell label. I can say no more. This music speaks louder than words...

Album: Rook Vallade - Vestiges

Unheard works from 1992-2000

Exiled in Berlin - exiled from 'the scene' pretty much, aside from releases under other pseudonyms, the sound of which won't have raised his profile or won him new fans - like he cares - as I said a while back about the People of the Internet, so many interesting ones say so little if they exist in that alternate Real World at all. Chris Douglas stands outside the outside. Vestiges should/could be a good entry point for beginners, containing as it does the kind of glitchy beats that have long since become accepted, a cosy genre, an old genre; except to say that Douglas naturally doesn't conform - hear the space-age crunch deconstruction of Gailfld, for instance. Or Aemlldr, which I mention just because it's a favourite of mine. Douglas collages brilliantly, pasting drills, thuds, crunches, brutal whacks and melancholic ambience better than most. Older ears may recognise signs of the times but they all lead to roads less travelled by his peers.

Touchin' Bass

Dalglish - Dorcha Aigeann / Brandon Nickell - Skyline (Ge-Stell)

Two superior releases from new label Ge-Stell. Superior to what? you ask. Pretty much everything else that's contemporary, with very few exceptions...I imagine. Forgive me becuase I haven't heard everything. I don't want to hear everything. Can you imagine what kind of hell that would be? How John Peel did it I don't know. The advantage, the only one I can think of, in having to endure all that new music would be the resulting ability to gauge, in relative terms, what stands out, I suppose. To be able to say 'This is superior' with authority...forgetting, for a moment, that little spanner in the works called 'subjectivity'.

Thank Charlie Parker I don't have to plough through all the new electronic music in order to ascertain what's best. I literally don't, but also don't need to when listening to Dalglish's Dorcha Aigeann and Brandon Nickell's Skyline. No-one else, to my knowledge (that again) sounds like Chris Douglas (Dalglish), in a league of his own...in a lonely place, perhaps, but that is our gain. The fibrous nature of these mechanised textures alienates and entangles...each piece a structure of microscopic elements...particles colliding, detonating yet cemented within the confines of their allotted time by a master's hand. The gathering intensity of Onair is hair-raising...the spatial organisation of Uisge a marvel to behold...all six tracks constitute a creaking, groaning, sparkling sonic kaleidoscope. Outstanding.

Nickell's Skyline may be easier to comprehend in it's use of beats in regular time, but that in no way diminishes it's effect. Right from Bayes a marker is laid, a crisp, weighty rhythm drives it, but it's what sits on top that matters, the persistent upper registers of organ-like droning, sustained alongside many other components which constantly push and pull the piece. Norvig Trajectory's predominant mood is darkened by a deep, wavering drone, but Nickell knows how to create contrasts that work and does so here by using the bare bones of percussive rhythm. Stripping away common elements of Techno/Electro/Ambient (oh those inadequate tags!) to rebuild something far greater, Nickell announces a braver, newer world, where the things that once were exist as echoes in this vision. Perhaps even serial music, on the longest track, Tesselate, comes into play, the seemingly self-generating line of motion played against a whip-cracking beat. 

Ge-Stell

Seaes - Seaes II (Meds)

(something like a review)

I had a little fun at the expense of Chris Douglas when 'reviewing' Niaiw Ot Vile on PAN last year. Thankfully he didn't hold it against me, which proves that despite the nature of his music he has a sense of humour...or was simply being tolerant. Someone once praised me for 'writing about music as if it mattered', a comment I'm still trying to understand...

...how much does music matter? It matters as light relief from the humdrum world of Work? It matters as a means by which to contemplate the very nature of ourselves as reflected in reaction to sound? It matters because it's an art form that can be both instantly accessible, understandable, joyous and baffling, frustrating, intriguing or annoying? Why does some noise annoy? Because it represents all that is shallow, insignificant, disappointing and tragic about a world based upon greed, celebrity-worship and desperate materialism? Oh, the unbearable lightness of being dependant on a diet of cultural dross including aural candyfloss...

...love or hate Seaes II the last thing you could call it is 'dross'. Unless you were a total idiot, which I know you aren't.  The Idiots Are Winning was an album title by someone who's name escapes me, but let's look at things another way rather than defeatist cynicism. Let's say that every time the idiots reveal their idiocy they lose again and they'll never win. They'll never own what you and I do, such as Chris Douglas recordings, but more seriously, the spirit of an eternal (no, we don't live forever, but in the afterlife I will still be hoping to find El Saturn records in a junk shop) quest for all that is profound, deep, meaningful, adventurous, intriguing, special, complex, challenging in this thing we call culture. Oh, and the super stupid, namely by Funkadelic, but also in the form of, say, Laurel & Hardy, because don't get me wrong, I don't spend my life like some highfalutin' intellectual who understands Joyce and post-structuralism (again - hah!). The idiots can win. They're on a loser's treadmill of constant mediocrity, so pity them...

...As Serious As Your Life is the title of a book by Val Wilmer and music like Seaes II is as serious as your life, as fathomless, even, but therein lies the mystery. Wilmer wrote about John Coltrane, who recorded a track dedicated to bass-player Paul Chambers called Mr P.C. There's a track called PC here too, recorded in 2004. I mention it as a standout and because it's title reminded me of the Coltrane one. Other than that, sonically, you'll not be surprised to learn that there's no connection....

...I'm not sure who has influenced Douglas. Much of his music sounds, as all the best stuff does, as if it springs from him, rather than being the result of having listened to and absorbed too many others, thus freeing himself from the burden of influence. PC is one of the tracks in which he imposes a sense of, if not strictly speaking the actual structure of, rhythm. But it's a rhythm that's off-kilter, irregular, languid and profoundly unsettling. On TC (2004) too, the deadened drum beat suggests that as we travel way off the map, here be dragons, or rather, demons. ZG (2004) offers a rare (for this comp) assault, a battering as if to wake any who may be dozing...

...with so much to digest here, it would be easy to drift....to lose focus, but that is why you will return to discover the diversity which may not be apparent at first. Unlike some music, here the depths and subtleties are not so clearly signalled. But you probably know that about Douglas anyway. Layer-upon-layer is revealed with a closer listen. The physical enormity of this release suggests he has so much music that's been withheld, as if he too can find no end to it all; there is no end to the journey, no definitive closure. Only this narrative, in sonic chapters, from the ongoing book of Chris Douglas...

(If you missed out on the hard copy I believe it will be released in digital form at some point)