ARTICLES
Ten Questions: Fat Jon
MUTEK 2006

ALBUMS
65daysofstatic
A Cloud Mireya
Ambarchi and Ng
Another Elec. Musician
Derek Bailey
Band Ane
Barzin
Black Gold 360
The Blow
Boduf Songs
Childs
Darc Mind
Dosh
Duopandamix
Fat Jon & Styrofoam
Liam Gillick
Shuta Hasunuma
Tim Hecker
Ilkae
Jack's Son
Richard Jäverling
Jazzkammer
Junior Boys
Last Days
Hanno Leichtmann
Luomo
Mandelbrot Set
Mountaineer
N.Phect & Dizplay
Part Timer
Karsten Pflum
Benoît Pioulard
Plus Device
+/- {Plus/Minus}
Relay
Saroos
Seht
Shedding
So Percussion
Sybarite
Trio Vopá
Marshall Watson
Weather Report
Donato Wharton
Christopher Willits
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
ESL Remixed
Four Tet
Garnier & Craig
Ginglik Saturdays
Michael Mayer
Henrik Schwarz

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Colleen
Delano and Xpansul
Detritus
Ed Devane
Eskimo
Feathers
Goldmund
Ezekiel Honig/Graphic
Ezekiel Honig
Eliot Lipp
Robert Lippok
Alejandro Lopez
Evan Marc
Porter & Carr
Sebastian Russell
Somone Else
Spaceships & Pings
SplitEP3
Simon Whetham

Trio Vopá: Fauxpas
Schraum

Recorded over two days at the Sternberg Studios in Karlsruhe, Germany, Fauxpas is the debut outing from improvising outfit Trio Vopá. Bassist Axel Haller, trumpeter Roland Spieth, and guitarist Cornelius Veit are fearless experimentalists, sometimes playing their instruments traditionally but more often radically—using postcards and brushes to play their instruments, for example. With its crying wah-wah and high-wire electronic noises, “Humer” could pass for a funeral service on Mars. It's an unusual collection on even temporal grounds, with ten pieces compressed into two-minute vignettes—some little more than fragments—and the closer nineteen minutes. All three ‘solo' throughout Fauxpas while collectively generating mobile micro-masses of alien sounds.

The iconoclastic spirit of Lester Bowie lives on in Spieth's playing, with the late Art Ensemble of Chicago great channeled for the pinched smooch of “Suc” and muted splatter of “Tromperie,” Spieth spewing notes like Jackson Pollock throwing paint. Spieth does a guttural bull-horn imitation on “Badischer Marsch,” brays like a prehistoric lizard on “Rspah,” and squeals and skitters on “Cor.” His partners have spotlights too, with Haller's scrape and groan prominent on “Malaise” and Veit's spindly crab-walk and barbed-wire chatter dominating “Ruade” and “Electrified Guitar” respectively. The long, drone-like setting “Dans” offers the musicians ample chance to stretch out, with Spieth devising an extended muted exploration over a rumbling, industrial base. Needless to say, anyone seeking classic jazz should look elsewhere, as the trio hunts experimental game exclusively.

November 2006