BURNT FRIEDMAN
Bokoboko
NON33
Nonplace Records 2012
10 Tracks. 47mins11secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP

It’s been ten years since Berlin-based musician Burnt Friedman first teamed up with Can percussionist and drummer Jaki Liebezeit on the opening release in their Secret Rhythms series, and this collaboration has generated three more albums, the more recent published last year, and four EPs, and has seen the pair tour together quite extensively. While Friedman continued to release solo records during that time, they remained, until now, quite different from his work with Liebezeit.

Bokoboko, a Japanese word meaning ‘uneven’ or ‘hollow-sounding’, sees Friedman adopt a similar rhythm-led concept to that of the Secret Rhythms series.With his latest solo record, Burnt Friedman distances himself from overtly electronic music to embrace a resolutely more rhythm centric sound reminiscent of his on-going collaboration with Jaki Liebezeit. Whilst he plays a wide array of instruments here (guitars, organ, synths, sampler…), the album’s primary structure is based on his extensive use of prepared oil and steel drums, pans and traditional drums. Liebezeit’s influence is very clear right from the start as Friedman opts for progressive hypnotic patterns with odd time signatures and non-linear evolutions, and emulate some of the Can drummer’s unique style, especially in the way he continuously replicates his themes as to create resonance.

This album marks quite a departure for Friedman’s solo work as he distances himself from overtly electronic music and embraces organic and acoustic forms much more drastically than on any of his previous solo outings, yet the occasional bursts of effects or processed textures which find a place amongst Friedman’s intricate patterns, at the beginning of Uzu or in the closing moments of Rimuse 3 for instance, appear all the more effective.

Once again, Friedman relies on the help of a handful of trusted Nu Dub Players collaborators (reed player Hayden Chisholm, guitarist Joseph Suchy, bass player Daniel Schroeter) plus David Franzke, who contributes field recordings throughout, and Berlin-based Japanese artist Takeshi Nishimoto who plays sarod, a traditional Indian string instrument, on two tracks, but their respective performances often appear to be pushed slightly to the back of the sonic field, with only sporadic elements allowed alongside the percussions. Only when the pace slows down and percussions become more sparse, on Deku No Bo or Mura predominantly, or on the opening sequence of the title track for instance, is there enough space for other instruments to filter through. Chisholm infuses Deku No Bo with wonderfully worm clarinet tones and breezier textures on Mura, while guitars also provide the latter with earthy sounds in its middle section.

Burnt Friedman has long been a fervent adept of rhythmic forms, and has, through his solo work or with Flanger or the Nu Dub Players, continuously striven to develop this particular aspect, but his on-going collaboration with Jaki Liebezeit has irremediably shifted the balance between rhythm and musical components towards the former. Bokoboko is perhaps not entirely as successful as the Secret Rhythms series, as Friedman at times struggles to maintain the interest over the whole course, but it is still, largely, a very successful record in its own right.

3.8/5

Burnt Friedman | Nonplace Records
Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP

FRIEDMAN & LIEBEZEIT
Secret Rhythms 4
NON030
Nonplace Records 2011
06 Tracks. 56mins36secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

The partnership between German electronic musician Burnt Friedman and legendary Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, established almost ten years ago, is back in action once more, following the 5 7 EP released last year. This fourth instalment in the Secret Rhythms series continues on a similar path to its predecessors by bringing together rich rhythmic tones and rarefied electronic formations. More than ever centered around Liebezeit’s hypnotic drumming, Secret Rhythms 4 sees the pair move into more minimal, stripped down terrains, the rhythmic patterns forever more cyclical, repetitive and fluid, layered with fragments of electronics and guitars, themselves set into loops of varying intensity and length.

Four of the six tracks here go over the ten minute mark, with 182-11 clocking at just under sixteen minutes. This leaves the pair plenty of time to set their rhythmic structures in motion and work on the trance-like aspect of the groove of each track until it starts distorting the perception of its very nature. So bare is the surrounding soundscapes created by Friedman around Liebezeit’s overwhelming rhythms that, as tracks progress, it becomes difficult to identify with precision at which exact point one is. For the most of 128-05 for instance, the scope is divided between Liebezeit’s alternating set of toms and bass drums and a recurring electronic two-tone bass which appears so tightly stuck to the drum patterns that it blends in almost entirely in the background. Later, the bass is taken up a couple of octaves as Friedman progressively introduces sweeping textures, but this barely affects the hypnotic nature of the piece.

Before it, 204-07 shows a richer sonic space around the core rhythmic structure, although Friedman seems to remain slightly towards the back here, leaving long term collaborator Joseph Suchy, a member of his Nu Dub Players, on E-Fuzz guitar to occupy the fore. Equally, 182-11 is a much more elaborate and complex piece, which grows over its all course from sparse drum inputs placed over hazy soundscapes to much drier forms later on as treated guitars are introduced, while 120-05 later is once again criss-crossed with E-Fuzz guitar fragments, this time supplied by Tim Motzer, giving it a more abrasive feel as the pace picks up.

On the two short tracks, 131-07 and 120-11, the sonic scope is considerably concentrated, which induces an element of urgency otherwise absent of this record. The hectic pace of the former contrasts with the more subtle progressive tempo of previous pieces, while the latter provides Friedman with the opportunity to develop miniature melodic forms and let them roam free for a moments before they are ultimately brought back under the implacable control of Liebezeit’s percussions.

It appears that the further Burnt Friedman and Jaki Liebezeit develop their collaboration the more fascinating it gets. Secret Rhythms 4 is a less immediate record than its predecessors, perhaps due to its barer overall aspect, yet the pair have reached here another level of development here, their understanding and respect of each other’s space allowing them both to perform as equal whilst occupying very different roles, ultimately making this record their more compelling release yet.

4.8/5

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit (MySpace) | Nonplace Records
Amazon UK: CD US: CD

Operating since the mid-nineties under a variety of monikers and collaborations, German musician and label owner Bernd Friedmann has built up a totally unique catalogue. He has taken his ethic and vision into his label, Nonplace, which he founded ten years ago. To celebrate this first decade, Friedmann collected a bunch of previously unheard versions and mixes of tracks that have appeared on various albums over the years. We took the opportunity of this landmark anniversary to speak to the man about the last ten years of releases and talk about his many projects, including his much celebrated collaboration with form Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit.

Bernd, happy anniversary. It’s ten years since you set up Nonplace, which is no mean achievement, especially nowadays. Looking back, what are your thoughts on that time?
To point at a label’s anniversary is a contradictory idea, as I am always concerned with the music that is coming rather than with the projects accomplished; but there were a few persistent homeless tracks that couldn’t be part of any previous collections; these pieces triggered the idea. It occurred to me later that I had closed a chapter with this Anniversary edition. Recordings – poops and yearns brought to tape – can function like a diary; when trying to remember a certain period of my life I recall the music that I was involved with, especially by looking upon tapes and track titles. Remarkable tracks initially manage to record and forever memorize personal dispositions. Everyone probably knows about the feelings attached to musical pieces, feelings that somehow engrave into the groove when first played back. From today’s point of view, it seems like the Coca Cola elements in my blood circuit have been flushed out. It may sound like an esoteric health experience but why not? Maybe not yet clearly audible, I abandon what has become known as pop, jazz, roots, etc.

What made you decide to set up the label in the first place?
From a theoretical point of view, imagining I was a painter but the artworks were owned by the gallery is an odd concept to me. To some extend, it is a comparable set up, only that the market value of products is drastically greater. Practically-speaking, in 1999 my label partner and Nonplace co-founder Oke Göttlich offered his support to help with administration and communication. We were encouraged to set up this company because our own talents could develop further independently. Until then, it felt like my musical catalogue was scattered amongst an unfortunate mess of international label releases (Nonplace Urban Field, Drome and Flanger on Ninja Tune, Kiff sm, DOT, Leaf, Incoming, ~Scape). Some of the labels ceased to exist while preparing my release from 1997-1999. Thus I gathered three different album projects which sat on my shelf.

Did you have a very clear idea of the type of music you wanted to release back then, and has it changed in any way over the years?
My initial approach as a dilettante could have been described as the appropriation of genre clichés to ridicule their content, overcome preconceptions and hopefully create something new. For instance, with Just Landed (B.F. & The Nu Dub Players) and the 1997 Templates album by Flanger, it was Atom’s and my purpose to spoil ‘instrumental jazz’ with what is known as ‘programmed electronic music’. With Con Ritmo, a year later, I pointed to the paradox that the more natural a sound may appear on record, the more artificial its processing, and the more expensive the tools to achieve this. I wouldn’t prefer the authentic over the fake! I still hope a discourse would rather describe audible musical forms or invent a unique vocabulary, instead of perpetuating, confusing terms like electronica, codes that direct people into dead end streets. Terms like these make music styles feel artificial, marginalising the most vital initial elements within global music, as they are more difficult to grasp.

Regardless of the actual musical direction, I wanted Nonplace to be fighting this process of redundancy in a field that is clearly wide open. In the beginning of Nonplace, in 2000 I was predominantly locked in front of my Atari MIDI sequencer, trying to simulate, and mess with, traditional South American rhythms by solely using a sampler. I was happy to see that change by working with Jaki Liebezeit and Hayden Chisholm and international artists from 2002 until today. Guitar sound-artist Joseph Suchy was the first one who joined the studio sessions with his contributions on Con Ritmo and you can hear him on almost all Nonplace releases from then until now. With an understanding of sequencing and production I think both parties did benefit from the marriage of live improvisation and studio composing.

To celebrate this tenth anniversary, you released a compilation of exclusive instrumental tracks, either remixes or versions of existing tracks released over the years. Why did you decide to release these unheard versions, and how did you choose between all the material that you had available?
To me it is a fairly cinematic ‘Best Of’ Nonplace, but most of the pieces, although derived from the catalogue’s rough material, were produced for that purpose. Mark Ernestus’s mix of Makena was one of the favourites from The Embassadors’ Coptic Dub sessions, but it didn’t fit into the mood of the album. Other pieces, like Peninsula, is like one of the label’s top hits, and it should not be missed, as I wanted to give an overview across the whole spectrum, but excluding vocal contributions. Rashad Becker has been the mastering engineer for all Nonplace Records releases, but on 10th Anniversary Edition, he is featured as remixer and is involved as a composer in three of the tracks.

You have released quite a lot of your own music on Nonplace, as well as quite a few collaborations. Is it a way for you to have complete control over your work?
It may sound crazy, but control was absolutely needed. When looking upon fan-based discography websites I discovered more than ten releases, mostly compilations, including tracks of mine that I had not heard of. It is impossible to sort those transactions out in retrospect. Besides, it has become increasingly difficult to manage a great number of label deals, especially with digital sales added, unless there was a scenario where the labels provide a lawyer, or at least a book keeper, to represent me. Of course, now that I run a small company, administration is painful, but I can run it on my own terms, or share complicated tasks with close friends. Without the help of bass player Daniel Schroeter and his managing skills I would not be able to keep up with the company’s duties.

How do you share your time between your role as head of Nonplace and your work as a musician?
Understanding developments in new media, software and technology relates to both being creative and running a label. The crucial part is to prevent the Internet and evolving technologies yanking the chains, while also cultivating it, regardless of one’s activities, creative or administrative.

Early CD releases often contained booklets which had little cartoons in them. What was the idea behind these?
The idea of the cartoons was to convey some ideas and feelings to the listener. As one may have noticed, the main protagonist was myself, with shaved head, talking about artistic purposes in a hoity-toity style.

There’s also a very ‘street’ approach to the artwork, with often loads of collages or graffiti-style visuals, which have over the years created a certain Nonplace aesthetic. Is it something that you consider an important part of the label, and how do you think this will evolve with digital downloads becoming so much more prominent?
The ‘street’ approach is solely practical. With handwritten track lists and notes I avoid the computer throughout the sketch phase and have an immediate idea about the sleeve optics. By combining real surfaces on paper, like drawings or photos of such I avoid computer processing.

Ever since the CDs and tapes were established we have to cope with subversive copy techniques. Regarding the loss of such a physical representation I can only look upon my own digital collection: half of it is burned on CDR, half of it squeezed into a catalogue. Packaging demolished, considered redundant, most CDRs almost seem to live longer than regular CDs. The handling of vinyl clearly goes against it.

Talking of digital format, the music market has changed drastically in the last ten years. How do you manage to keep the label going through what has been a tough time for most labels?
We have to accept the fact that music does not belong to a physical medium anymore, but to the ether and real time. To sound naturally reproduced, the use of electronic tools which sounds are from the start perceived only through the vibration of a loudspeaker membrane is unavoidable. Technology is its closest field. Such technologically-driven music is doomed to transform, or die with new rationalized tech standards. Now, with the absence of profit, the good thing is, some may invest into other musical territories and people may discover special, globally relevant sounds and rhythms instead.

Going back to the records that have come out on Nonplace, is there one in particular that you are particularly proud of?
No. Secret Rhythms 1 did affect the label in a positive way; it felt like music that I hadn’t heard before.

You have released quite a few records with Flanger, the band you and Uwe Schmidt formed over ten years ago, but it’s been a little while since the last one, Spirituals, which was released five years ago. Are you planning to work together again in the future?
We have started working on something new.

Perhaps one of your most high profile and successful collaborations is the one with Jaki Liebezeit. How did it all start and how did the idea of the Secret Rhythms series of albums come about?
In 1996 I started using pre-recorded sounds and sequences on minidisc players, as a response to DJ turntable beat-mixing. I entitled it Mix Your Own, as it contained home made sequences. On stage, I played back ten separate tracks (left and right is recorded separately), often at once. Minidisc players do not allow synchronization. In order to keep the timing I produced sequences with one determined tempo and pressed play whenever I felt was right. As a side effect the cue-points of the sequences varied, and I realized that this was a benefit, at once similar to a canon or the effects of an unusual, odd time signature. Non-western beats fascinate me. I had occasionally composed tracks in six or nine, almost by chance, or inspired by Zappa tunes.

It was the time to explore further and establish a real live formation. Who could have been a better partner to investigate in odd meter grooves than Jaki Liebezeit? We listened to the sequences I used to play out live and it didn’t take long until we were preparing for the first Cologne live gig with his drums amped and freshly composed sequenced patterns ran on minidisc players. Jaki was sometimes joking about ‘secret’ rhythms, because in fact, the rhythms are obvious, not hidden! They are simply seldom heard in our country, inexistent in clubs. Each of these rhythms acquires a muscular understanding; they can’t be appropriated by intellect. The only way to feel each stroke right is to practice frequently according to the rule of the rhythm. As a consequence, in order to improve, we continue to play together.

How did you work on these albums? Did you spend time together in the studio, or was it a much looser recording process, with each of you recording on your side and bringing it together at a later stage?
In the beginning we focused on live performance; some of the rhythms we played only once or twice. Some grooves come from Jaki, some from myself. Only a few of these rhythms survived over the years, and if they did, they survived as a core structure for various ongoing transmutations, on each of the three albums and all live shows. Occasionally we meet up for recording sessions, but this is only to tape Jaki’s drums proper; whereas I constantly overdub, record and remix the tracks anyway, whenever possible. It is especially radical when Jaki’s drums are added to my set of patterns.

You’re also playing a string of dates together throughout this year, unfortunately none in the UK. What can people expect when going to see you guys perform?
It is not so much concert music as, maybe, a ritual event; ritual in the sense that the music becomes increasingly hypnotic when it plays us. Some people respond to it as a new form of club music and people are mostly baffled by the accuracy between the sequenced and the played. In general, our approach is to constitute a groove-driven musical organism. No particular instruments shall be featured in particular. Playing together means, listening carefully to what is going on. As a result, it doesn’t matter if two or two hundred instruments play together, as long as they are in tune with each other. Hence, it is not a virtuous presentation of two stern Germans, but could also be a model for denationalized global music.

Jazz and dub are predominant influences in your work. How did you come to listening to these, and what musicians have been particularly influential for you?
Let’s give up terms like jazz and dub. They are mistaking methods for styles; the ball is out of bounds, no candid musician would want to be accommodated by such terms. In the end, considering a truly outstanding piece, we would name the creators. There was a period of time when I was attracted to Scientist’s dub-wise versions for instance, but as so often the case, it’s becoming redundant without looking deeper and I realize that musical treasures are tucked away. Listening to such buried non-western treasures from the sixties to the eighties is what influences me most.

Is that where you get your taste for improvisation?
From when I started recording music in 1978, I have always ‘improvised’. That means, whenever the recording was engaged or the concert started, we forced ourselves to get the first take right, since nothing could be edited anymore. Ethnic music has been an influence early on and I believe it was a major influence to the English industrial scene, too – for being a force beyond questions of taste. During the eighties I evolved from a musician into a producer, into someone who would work with what is expressed by the piece as a sculpture and whose instrument is the mixing desk, or the signal routing system. A producer only really comes into his own at the mixing desk, the place where all sounds converge. When I started programming – in other words, when I started using samplers, keyboards and computers – then the desk did become the sole musical source in the sense that it was the only place where improvisation was possible. All the other studio equipment required logistical and administrative efforts, but the desk was the place for immediate, spontaneous action. This is where dub came into play.

On First Night Forever, which you released in 2007, you worked with a number of vocalists, which was something fairly new in your work it seemed. What made you decide to record a whole album with singers, and how did the project come up? Is it something you’re willing to take further?
One of the singers, Theo Altenberg, encouraged me to revive a bunch of unused instrumental tracks which I loosely worked upon over a very long period of time. After a few spontaneous vocal sessions we were both inspired to produce a whole album together. Healer contains a first-take vocal recording – no lyrics existed. During the process more and more singers got involved and the range of tracks expanded. I approached Steve Spacek, Enik, Daniel Dodd-Ellis and Barbara Panther without any particular sound or style in mind. I was simply keen to explore the effects of songs with odd time signatures. With the vocals recorded, I went through another process of rearranging the tracks, according to the vocals. Far from having a plan, I tried to realize every idea that sprang to mind.

First Night Forever is also the last solo record you’ve released. Is there a follow up in the pipeline? Do you have a clear idea of what you want your next record to sound like?
Sound actually is not an important factor. When drawing a sketch for instance the first dashes are essential. Their colour is secondary. Or to put it this way, when the composition is right, the colours are interchangeable. Composing is a continuous process, not accomplished by the act of recording an album. Some tracks, rhythm or whatever you call it, live forever, perpetuate into other versions, or they unveil their full potential years later. Once a year maybe another auspicious piece comes along.

Are there musicians with whom you have yet had a chance to work with but would love to?
Griots.

How do you see Nonplace evolve in the next ten years? Are you keen on getting more artists on the label, or are you happy with the roster as it is at the moment?
I am currently talking to The Drums Off Chaos group, which has five drummers, including Jaki Liebezeit and our sound engineer and drummer Maf Retter, in order to release a solo drum record with them. On the other hand, the digital download catalogue is developing independently; I might have a few reissues coming there, as well as the Flanger soundtrack for the Hungarian movie Bibliotheque Pascal in 2010, which features a few tracks from the Spirituals album, as well as new versions of other old Flanger pieces. The vinyl medium also seems to be developing further in its own direction and as I intend to release music on each format according to their inherent market rules, the catalogue will vary according to the format.

If you had to choose five records, films, books or works of art, or any combination of, which ones would they be, and why?
Have mercy! I would always choose the ones that I haven’t read, heard or seen. Impossible to give a straight answer. Amongst the musical pieces is the Passacaglia For Orchester, Opus no.1 from 1908 by Anton Webern. The film Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors, often translated to Wild Horses Of Fire, by Sergei Parajanow is part of the selection though.

Burnt Friedman | Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit (MySpace) | Nonplace Records

VARIOUS ARTISTS
10th Anniversary Edition
NON28
Nonplace Records 2010
15 Tracks. 60min00secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD

Ten years is a milestone for any label, especially in today’s volatile music market, and it is just the one reached by Bernd ‘Burnt Friedman’ Friedmann’s excellent Nonplace. While the label has been an outlet for his own projects, either solo or collaborative, it has also seen contributions from a handful of bands and artists, from Beige or Freeform to Roots 70 and The Embassadors more recently. More than a label with a perfectly hermetic roster, Nonplace is a bubbling cauldron where artists are often spotted on works other than their own and cross pollination is actively encouraged. Friedmann of course has been involved in one way or another on most records released on the label, but it is also the case of multi-instrumentist Hayden Chisholm, who, from his early collaboration with Friedmann as part of the Nu Dub Players, went on to form both Root 70 and The Embassadors, or guitarist Joseph Suchy, who beside a number of extra-Nonplace activities, is often seen alongside Friedmann on his solo projects.

This compilation doesn’t so much attempts to sum up the last ten years as to provide a snapshot of the label sound, from the stripped down dub that fuels Friedmann’s solo work and defines much of his utterly excellent collaborative work with Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, which has been so far collected on three volumes in their Secret Rhythms series, to the laidback jazz overtones of Flanger, the project he set up with Uwe ‘Atom Heart’ Schmidt over ten years ago. There is however an underlying flow to this record which starts with an entirely instrumental remix of The Librarian, the original of which featured vocals by David Sylvian and appeared on Secret Rhythms 2, and visits the sumptuous organic dubbey grooves of The Embassadors, with a subtly revised version of the smooth Iboga Dreamtime first, then with the sharper Makena, and of Friedmann’s solo work before progressively reaching much jazzier shores with a bunch of tracks and remixes from Flanger, at times pushing into big band territory, especially on Funeral March, before returning to a much leaner sound toward the end, once again encapsulated by the powerful Friedman/Liebezeit partnership on The Sticks first, remixed by Nonplace’s resident mastering engineer Rashad Becker, then again on the Friedman remix of Wirklich to close the album, while Roots 70, again remodelled by Becker, brings a hint of sci-fi quirk to the project.

While in no way exhaustive (where are the Nu Dub Players for instance?), this celebratory collection provides a good insight into the Nonplace aesthetic. Jazz and dub are found here in abundance and reflect the trends that have been at the core of the label’s output in the last ten years. By opting for remixes, instead of simply line-up existing tracks, it is as if Friedman was reaffirming his commitment to both genres as driving forces behind his overall work.

4.5/5

Nonplace Records
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD

BURNT FRIEDMAN
Con Ritmo
NON26
Nonplace Records 2000/2009
12 Tracks. 59mins08secs

Buy: CD | iTunes
Stream: Spotify

When he released Con Ritmo, almost ten years ago, German musician and producer Bernd ‘Burnt’ Friedman had already been publishing music, under a variety of pseudonyms, and with the Nu Dub Players or Flanger, a project he co-steered with Atom™, since the mid-nineties, appearing on labels such as ~Scape or Ash International. This album was only the third release, and the first album, from his then recently set up Nonplace Records imprint.

Playing keyboards and vibraphone, Friedman surrounded himself with the tongue-in-cheek Disposable Rhythm Section, featuring guitarist Josef Suchy and Bernie The Bolt, who brought Latin flavours to the drums and percussions. On Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse, the trio were joined by long-time friend and collaborator Atom Heart on Moog. The tracks collected on this record were culled from live recordings made during a two-week period.

Now presented in fully remastered glory and featuring four additional tracks, Con Ritmo has lost none of its charms and quirks. Largely feeding from Latin jazz and exotica ambiences and tones, the tracks on here are exquisitely funky and groovy, yet, at the same time, elegant and restrained. The overall mood is utterly smooth and fluid, with melodies that unravel and develop around subtle chord changes into beautiful sequences, propelled by hot sweaty rhythms. The album kicks off with the pretty chilled Los Corraleros, with its big slabs of Hammond organ and pretty straightforward beat, but things hot up with the groovy Demolition Derby and Octrahedal Sperical Caffufle which follow, and the energy levels goes up again with the cheesy sci-fi of Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse, the oblique lounge-funk of Octrahedal Sperical Caffufle/Vers or the excellent Planquadratschick, before taking yet another turn toward scorching funk with Gondel.

Elsewhere, the mood is held back to allow for more subtle moments to flourish. This is very much the case on the dubbey Platin Tundra, which never seems to develop to its full potential until closer listen reveals a great deal of activity in the sub-levels of the piece. On Destination Unknown, the tone is once again more delicate and peaceful, and while the rhythm section still relentlessly drives the piece, especially in its middle section, the rich and colourful guitar motifs heard on the early part of the track give it a sophisticated lustre, while the vibraphone which becomes omnipresent in the latter part highlights its sunny disposition. Butikofer Y Monoy is in many ways a more straightforward and linear composition, especially placed against the epic Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse, but once again, its complexity becomes more obvious with time.

This is, it has to be said, a characteristic of Friedman’s work. While he often gives the impression that his records are nothing more than a series of easy pieces, slightly cheesy even, he actually creates extremely complex and layered structures that continuously evolve and charm by their dexterity and ingenuity. While Con Ritmo is one of his earlier major recordings, Burnt Friedman already showed here many of the traits that have made his later work, especially his collaboration with legendary Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit, so thoroughly enjoyable and compelling.

4.7/5

Burnt Friedman | Nonplace Records
Buy: CD | iTunes
Stream: Spotify

FRIEDMAN & LIEBEZEIT
Secret Rhythms 3
25742/25751
Nonplace Records 2008
07 Tracks. 52mins40secs

Long before Kieran Hebden teamed up with legendary percussionist Steve Reid, German electronic musician Bernd ‘Burnt’ Friedman joined forces with another celebrated drummer in the person of Can member Jaki Liebezeit. Their first shared offering came in the shape of Secret Rhythms (2002), combined Friedman’s characteristic dub and futuristic electro jazz and Liebezeit’s feel for multi-faceted rhythmic formations to create a collection of subtle impressionist tracks caught somewhere between dusk and dark. Four years on, they were at it again. Secret Rhythms 2 continued to outline a fascinating world all in contrasts and undertones.

Third in the series, this latest Secret Rhythms collection redefines once more the spectrum in which the pair evolve. Perhaps their most compelling collaboration yet, this latest album seems at first more open and pop-infused than its predecessors, especially with opening track Morning Has Broken, which features an inviting slide guitar wash layered over Liebezeit’s crisp drumming. But, as the track progresses, the hypnotic nature of the piece becomes apparent as the rhythmic pattern locks the rest of the piece into a series of atmospheric loops which evolve slowly into one another. This process of cellular decomposition is repeated at various levels throughout, from the lively Entsafter to the atmospheric stretches of Gegenwart or the dub-infused Die Ehrliche Haut or Wirklich Version, and often developed over the course of seven to ten minutes, giving enough time for the mood to settle without ever overloading the record.

Interestingly, there never seem to be one particular leader here. Although Liebezeit and Friedman are the core creative force behind the project, the various intervenients (Hayden Chisholm on clarinet and saxophone, Tim Motzer on guitars, Joseph Suchy on E-Fuzz guitar and Morten Grønvad on vibraphone) all take centre stage at some point and bring their own flavour to the compositions. This results in Secret Rhythms being at once the most varied of the three albums Friedman and Liebezeit have collaborated on, and the most consistent. Their partnership is getting stronger and more organic with each record. Liebezeit’s flair for odd time signatures and progressive approach fuel Friedman’s creative thinking, and vice versa. This is particularly palpable on Gegenwart and Wirklich Version, which bring together exotic rhythm, dub and jazz in loose entities, but the space between each elements on Die Ehrliche Haut or closing Sandale, with its delicate touches of steel drum and processed guitars, seem to highlight the deep understanding that the pair have for each other..

Very much like its predecessors, Secret Rhythms 3 is a record that unveils its strengths progressively, and it has been one of the attractions of this collaboration from their first release. Both Friedman and Liebezeit have made very distinctive marks on the music scene throughout their respective careers, and this double legacy transpires through their collaborative work, but this series of records is all about looking at fresh ways to make music, and they deliver here with brio.

4.7/5

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit (MySpace) | Nonplace Records
Buy: CD | LP

VARIOUS ARTISTS
You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts
ZENCD150
Ninja Tune 2008
50 Tracks. 224mins35secs

Ninja Tune have been going for an awful long time. Eighteen years in fact. Back at the outset, deep in the mists of time, when we were quite a bit younger than we are now (if we existed at all, that is), the Ninja crew were a bunch of cool fuckers. They rode in on the backs of the likes of DJ Food, Coldcut, Hex and co. Soon after the founding fathers came a second wave consisting of 9 Lazy 9, Funki Porcini, DJ Vadim and The Herbaliser. The early compilations – Funkjazztical Tricknology, Tone Tales From Tomorrow – were a lot of fun and contributed to a playful rebalancing of the rather-too-serious for its own good self-definition of trip-hop by Bristolian headliners (you know who I mean).

Later in the nineties and early noughties, fascinating leftfield luminaries such as Burnt Friedman, Chris Bowden, Roots Manuva and Jaga Jazzist hopped on the bus. But somewhere along the way the main stable seemed to get a bit hackneyed, those waggish ‘you are listening to a stereo recording’-type samples began to bring listeners out in hives and the Ninja Tune share price plummeted.

Had enough of the history lesson? Knew it all already? Fair enough, but all that’s the background to this three CD release which represents something of a lifting up of the proverbial carpet to see what strange mould outgrowths and unlikely furballs have accumulated in the shadows over the years. This is Ninja Tune taking the opportunity to open up the hoover bag and tell an alternate, arguably more interesting history than the one you’ve just read above (sorry!)

So how about The Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Shadow, cLOUDDEAD, Wiley, Amon Tobin, Spank Rock, Mr Scruff, Daedelus, Ty, Diplo, Homelife, Ghislain Poirier, The Bug? Occasionally, the likes of NMS intoning ‘the government have programmed your brain, it’s a brave new world’ begin to pall, but then along comes Mike Ladd to raise the bar again with the aptly titled Blah Blah. Likewise, Cinematic Orchestra’s Rites Of Spring feels too much like a tokenistic ‘oh look we even do free jazz blowouts’, but the downturn is quickly salved by the rather lovely backwards vocals and strings of Max & Harvey’s Thieves. Over a gargantuan, exhausting and probably over-extended fifty tracks and three hours, forty four minutes and thirty five seconds, we get taught a lesson, the gist of which is – Ninja Tune are a lot more varied, less cuddly, harsher and more in-yer-face than you and your wonky memory might have come to believe. On the evidence of this I’m loathe to disagree.

3.5/5

Ninja Tune
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