Swedish vocal and drums outfit Wildbirds Peacedrums, whose debut album album, Heatcore, was released last year on Leaf, are now set to release it’s follow up, The Snake, on 13 April, once again on Leaf.

The Snake was originaly published in the band’s native land last year. Recorded in live conditions in Gothenburg, Sweden, the album is said to expand on the band’s original sound by introducing steel drums, piano, xylophone and marimba.

Wildbirds & Peacedrums are set to return to the UK for a string of live dates to coincide with the album release. Dates as follow:

1/04: Brighton
2/04: Norwich
3/04: Bristol
4/04: Sheffield
5/04: Glasgow
6/04: Manchester
7/04: London

Wildbirds & Peacedrums | The Leaf Label

COLOR CASSETTE
Forever Sparrow
MOULIN020
Autres Directions In Music 2009
11 Tracks. 40mins26secs

In an age dominated by digital media, where even CDs are, to this reviewer’s despair, fast becoming obsolete, cassettes are the antediluvian equivalent of travelling the lengths and breadth of the country on horseback. Equally, the music created by Kentucky-based duo Color Cassette is in many ways as old fashioned and out of time. The band, who released a very limited first mini album on Moteer’s sister DIY imprint Mobeer last year, have moved to French label Autres Directions In Music to release their debut full length album.

Originally the solo project of multi instrumentist and singer-songwriter Jason Corder, of Lexington, Kentucky, Color Cassette now also comprises permanent member Matt Yarington. Four years in the making, Forever Sparrow is a delicate and peaceful collection of folk-influenced ornate pop songs which are given some more contemporary textures with the addition of field recordings and discreet glitches. No less than fourteen musicians have contributed to this album, yet, the songs appear extremely fragile and stripped down, with often nothing more than a gentle acoustic guitar, a voice and discreet electronics to focus on. The melodies are refined and airy, sustained by Corder and Yarington’s soft vocal harmonies, and flow rather well from one song to the next, seemingly echoing at various points throughout the record, as if recurring themes were used to give these pieces an overall sense.

The album tells the story of a young boy lost in a magical forest who, after becoming a sparrow, decides to continue to live there. The sonic tapestry created by the pair and their various collaborators has a fairy tale-like quality indeed, drawing the listener in with captivating little vignettes which scintillate softly under ever changing exquisite tones and moods. Occasionally, the pieces gain strength and build momentum, but even in these circumstances, it is the melodies and harmonies that lead the way and give Forever Sparrow its utterly charming touch.

3.8/5

Color Cassette | Color Cassette (MySpace) | Autres Directions In Music

MICHAEL SANTOS
The Happy Error
KARU11
Baskaru 2008
11 Tracks. 52mins04secs

London-based musician and sound artist Michael Santos has already been featured on a handful of compilations, and a first collection of compositions was released as part of Benbecula’s Mineral Series of CDRs in 2006, followed by another CDR release for U-Cover. The Happy Error, brought to you by the rather excellent Baskaru imprint is, however, is first proper release.

Working from a classic set up of processed guitars and sine waves, Santos creates evocative little atmospheric pieces. Continue Reading »

MELODIUM
Cerebro Spin
ADR071
Audio Dregs 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins40secs

Melodium is too polite.  Laurent Girard, the man behind the moniker, is a master of gentle suggestion and microscopic whisps of mystery.  Girard consistently seems to be asking nicely for an audience, rather than demanding to be heard.  It’s a trite analogy, but like the budding of a rather colorful flower in the middle of a forest, the melodies of Melodium need to be sought out by listeners with patience, an ever-rarer trait in the current musical climate ridden with flash-in-the-blog din. Continue Reading »

Joshua Eustis, of New Orleans based duo Telefon Tel Aviv, today announced that his friend and ‘better half’ in the band, Charles Wesley Cooper III, had passed away on 22 January at the age of 31. In a message on the band’s myspace page, Eustis paid tribute to his long term friend, who he described as ‘a total sweetheart of a guy, a loving friend and confident to people everywhere.’

John Hughes, head of Chicago-based Hefty Records, who released the band’s first two albums, also paid tribute to Cooper on the label’s website, saying that ‘Cooper was an integral part of my label, but more importantly, my life. [...] The most defining memories of my career in music were spent with Telefon Tel Aviv’.

Telefon Tel Aviv released their third full length record, Immolate Yourself, on Ellen AlLien’s BPtich Control last Monday.

No further detail was given about the circumstances of Cooper’s death.

Our thoughts are with Charlie’s family and with Joshua Eustis.

Telefon Tel Aviv | Telefon Tel Aviv (MySpace)

RICHARD SKELTON
Marking Time
PRE018
Preservation 2008
07 Tracks. 40mins54secs

Richard Skelton doesn’t mark time in the sense of someone wading through the nugatory paradise of the weekend, but of someone partaking in an attentive re-collection of moments, corroded and crumbling. There’s no point in progress in a work such as this. Skelton embraces entropy at a stroke and only continues to settle in. Continue Reading »

Experimental French imprint Bip-hop, which has just delivered the first studio album by Brighton-based artist Bela Emerson and the ninth instalment in its excellent Bip-hop Generation series, will be celebrating ten years at the forefront of experimental music with an exclusive CD given away to subscribers with the March issue of The Wire.

The label, spearheaded by music activist Philippe Petit, a music journalist, radio DJ and musician, amongst other things, has released music by artists as diverse as Si-Cut.db, Twine, Spaceheads, Scanner, Angel, Iris Garrelfs, Rothko, Bovine Life, Janek Schaefer or the third collaborative effort between Max Eastley and David Toop, and featured the likes of Murcof, Burnt Friedman, Arovane, Datach’I, Schneider TM, Phonem, Ilpo Vaisänen, Taylor Deupree or FM3.

In 2002, the label started a new series of collaborative efforts entitled Reciprocess +/vs. in which two artists offered common compositions and remixes of each other’s work. So far, two volumes have been made available; the first one was a collaboration between Scottish artist Bovine Life, AKA Chris Dooks, and German artist Komet (Frank Bretschneider), and the second documented the collaboration between Stephan Mathieu and Douglas Benford. The CD given away in next month’s issue of The Wire is the third installment in this series, but this time, the project is curated by Philippe Petit and will feature eighty minutes of material from Aidan Baker, Chapter 24, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Simon Fisher Turner, Klangwart, Douglas Benford, Martkovo, Bela Emerson, Kumo, Eugene S. Robinson, Severin 24, Jason Forrest, Lydia Lunch, Jean-Hervé Peron, Strings  Of Consciousness, Sybarite, Jeru and dDamage.

Bip-Hop | Philippe Petit (MySpace)

CHEJU
Broken Waves
BOLTLP005
Boltfish Records 2009
15 Tracks. 78mins52secs

Cheju is the solo project of Wil Bolton, who also shares duties as head of Boltfish Records with Murray Fisher, who regularly officiates as MINT. Bolton relocated from London to peaceful Norfolk a couple of years ago and now operates from the more urban Liverpool. Following a debut EP in 2003, he has appeared on labels such as Percussion Lab, En:peg Digital, Laced Milk, Rednetic or Static Caravan. Cheju’s music is a sophisticated blend of clean melodic electronica, angular hip-hop beats and processed atmospheric textures. Continue Reading »

ELEGI
Varde
MIACD009
Miasmah Recordings 2009
12 Tracks. 53mins46secs

Elegi’s Tommy Jansen returns to the contaminated shore of Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah with the follow up to his 2007 debut album Sistereis, and adds another shade of noire to an already sombre catalogue. In the ten years the label has been around, in one form or another, Miasmah have carved a perfect niche for themselves by releasing some of the most haunting and dark music around, from artists such as Greg Haines, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Gultskra Artikler or Encre. Continue Reading »

OBA MASAHIRO
Prot
PGT04
Symbolic Interaction 2008
09 Tracks. 45mins39secs

Staunch pastiche’s accrue in Oba Masahiro’s debut effort Prot and swiftly erode, enabling him to build out from a zero point with renewed vitality.  A grating swirl of heavily processed sound surfaces at first, with keyboard and percussion putatively detectable in the mix, occasional sunbursts of cymbal breaking through.  Masahiro then bleaches and reduces the same basic palette in a long, breezy susurrus that seems to have no obvious limits or durational boundaries; you’re just a part of it and then it’s over.  Continue Reading »