| December 2005 news
December 31, 2005
MINIATURE GLITCHES
• tube'|032 - Reso - Small Music
«2005's last entry, ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome Yuusaku Kubota, also known as Reso.
Reso has previously released two EP's for MiMi netlabel and a couple of tracks in several compilations.
Reso is Japanese, and if we could tell (and we can) that there's a typical japanese sound in ambient electronica, well... this is it. Reso's ambient drones aren't really that far away from Ryoji Ikeda's low frequency signatures. If in doubt, please take 'Introversion' 19 minute trip right away. It is laid and layered as three or four pieces joint together (by the way, a 'joint' is something you will not need here...).
'Small Music' is a title not to be taken literaly, as one might suspect. Apart from the long opening piece, you'll find a small (yes, this one is actually small...) one minute piece, 'Cut Up and Cut Up', an insidious experiment into cut and paste electronica, followed by the second longest piece, and a personal favorite, 'Haze', which is, well... a 'Hazing' drone which lasts exactly 7 long minutes. You'll probably want to crank your volume knob up high on this one, because that's the best way to feel this monstrous drone. It surrounds you completely and draws continuous circles of hazing sound patterns, that go up and down several times before ending up abruptly. Next up, 'Extroversion', is titled as the opposite of the first piece, but it's not. It's rather a follow up. More ambient and glitch patterns, found sounds and tape loops, all processed by a mighty Powerbook. 'Green Lamp' ends up 2005 for test tube, in a beautiful glitchy and harmonious piece that's pretty much Reso's typical soundwork.» - Pedro Leitão
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December 28, 2005
*BLUSH TAKE ONE
It's great to find nice words from test tube fans when browsing through the website stats. Check this one, it comes with a couple of reviews:
«Way back in the mid 90ies, the German Mille Plateaux label gained attention by introducing the strange world of pops and clicks. Artists like Oval or Microstoria even got played by John Peel on BBC1 and introduced the world after music: digital fragments split and reassembled. Influenced by Musique concrète, and Serialism these soundscapes expanded and eventually became a genre of its own.
The Test Tube netlabel seems to resemble this spirit with some of its artists. Though relatively new, it already has a remarkable back catalogue I haven’t listened to it in its entirety yet. Quite outstanding in my opinion are the tracks of Thanos Chrysakis (UK) and Darren McClure (Japan). Although there are some similarities in their deconstruction of acoustic snippets, they represent different worlds:
Darren’s sounds, though they may become weird at times, still retain an optimistic warm attitude. the urban world in the morning sun, buildings reflecting orange colours. Thanos, however guides the listener through a frozen, icy world coloured in neon light. Machines that haven’t been exposed to natural light for years, dust covered grounds and fog that’s sure to last for another couple of years. Like Yin and Yan, either side of life belongs together and won’t let us forget about the opposite.
Definetely worth listening to and I’m already looking forward to new releases.»
Found here.
*BLUSH TAKE TWO
Also, Disquiet included one of our releases in it's best of 2005 list. Right at number 3 on the downloads side, we rejoiced when we saw Aitänna77's name printed. Excellent choice, Marc! Thanks much!
A day earlier, the same Marc Weidenbaum wrote the following about one of our latest releases, DOPO's 'Last Blues, To Be Read Someday':
«This is 2005's final Downstream entry. Seems appropriate to end on something from the test tube netlabel, based out of Portugal. In less than a year and a half, test tube has earned a reputation as a key locale for original, freely downloadable music. Even those test tube releases that are not explicitly electronica, like DOPO's Last Blues, to Be Read Someday, the label's 30th, have an ambient intent. DOPO are reminiscent of John Fahey and Boxhead Ensemble at their most blissfully meandering. Listen on "I Can See the Church Clock from the Window" to how the background feedback drone tempts the drummer to cool his heels, or on "Seaweed" how woodwind and accordion (the latter bringing to mind Dino Saluzzi's better work on ECM) merge into one sinuous wave of warmth. The real keeper on this four-track album is "Distance Again Expands", five and a half minutes of a solemn riff played against a sonar beat, like some aged Celtic band's idea of minimal techno. The files are compressed at varying bit rates, none smaller than 470kbps (three times the size of the average netlabel download), so the sound quality is extremely good. Check out DOPO's Last Blues at monocromatica.com/netlabel.»
What a great way to end 2005. Thanks to everyone that downloads and enjoys what we're doing here...
But one release remains before we start working into 2006. Check back
this saturday, folks.
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December 22, 2005
HEALING MUSIC
• tube'|031 - Gordon Tebo - Adaptive Immune
«And from Chicago - USA comes Gordon Tebo, a man with a very special music. Test Tube proudly presents 'Adaptive Immune', a kind of an ode to the human being, and his self-healing immune system. Gordon's music goes straight to the cells that we're made of. But don't get fooled by this apparently cold approach to his music. 'Adaptive Immune' is warm, warm like a blanket made of tiny little sound particles that tuck you in your bed at night. Just check 'Homeopath Inversion' and you'll understand what we're talking about. Slow drones of static get to you right from the beginning, keeping you comfortable all the way, inducing you into a dream state like no other. This EP feels like it was made with pretty much care and attention, and with love too. It's delicate, it's pretty, it's almost perfect. Almost perfect like a human being. Almost perfect like our immune system, taking good care of us. And guess what: It works.»
- Pedro Leitão
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December 09, 2005
SMALL ORCHESTRA
• tube'|030 - DOPO - Last Blues, To Be Read Someday
«It was kind of inevitable. We would take as our own the most recent ways of doing a certain kind of rock. New and our own, mind you. But that’s irrelevant now. They’re here and we took’em. The primacy of the instrumental over the word, the experimentation without knowledge, the dematerialized song and the mashup of different musical genres. DOPO, a collective of five musicians, are clearly implied in this theft. They are sound thieves, which is equivalent to say that they are also sound creators. The four pieces recorded in this EP explain rather well that condition. They happened, pushed against the ground or against the air.
Maybe that’s why DOPO’s music, being so familiar to us, is simultaneously able to become singular as something unstable and without form. We find in it the echoes of blues, of folk but we could also talk about a kind of dirty music. Because made at ground level, of its odours, sounds and colours. In the end, music that could have been made by dirt scratched hands.
Perhaps - we have to believe - it wasn’t. It’s just music made by a small orchestra of robbers and young adventurers that decided one day to challenge the creative act. And this record is the joyful result of that game. We find it in the song that rambles suspended in “I can see the church clock from the window of your bedroom” before interrupting its lonely march; in “Seaweed” where the solitude dissolves into whistled melodies in space; in “Lifting the valleys of the sea” where the sounds are reminiscent of whatever images we choose. But, especially, in “Distance again expands” where DOPO drags us in a passionate way, to the most deep moment and space of that same re-encounter. And we go with it voluntarily and happily.»
- José Marmeleira
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December 05, 2005
DECEMBER LABELS
Round up of new (well, some may not be all that new, but...) netlabels that got to our attention. Ready your downloads and lets get going, then:
Alg-a [URL]
Alg-a is a galician netlabel co-run by test tube artist and friend Xesús Vale Pasos of Plumb & Plumber. They're much into experimental languages like ambient, noise and laptop folk. Essential.
Kyoto Digital [URL]
If you're a fan of digital/minimal dub scorchers like the ones from Basic Channel, then Kyoto is likely to become your favorite netlabel. Just get everything, mon!
Yuki Yaki [URL]
With just two releases, Yuki Yaki is already bookmarked and one of our favorite dig sites. Excellent quality minimal techno and dub flavored sounds.
Serein [URL]
From the U.K. comes this also very new label, Serein, with ambition and a great looking website. Experimental and Electro-acoustic sounds. Check out the first release by Muhr. Thumbs up.
Stasisfield [URL]
I can't believe
I missed referring this one earlier. Stasisfield is like the Mego or Touch of experimental audio netlabels. It's really that important. Check it out.
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December 02, 2005
MICROACOUSMATIC MUSIC
• tube'|029 - Thanos Chrysakis - Errant Waves
«Closer, and farther... there is a constant spatial fluctuation on Thanos Chrysakis' Errant Waves: a 7-track release built by abstract crystalline/metallic sounding events, happening on different places around you, some of them near, some of them far, and is this distance shifting and amazing space usage, what makes this album particularly fascinating and intriguing.
Thanos Chrysakis is a London living musician of Greek origin, who also writes poetry and does experimental moving image making. His work is well known and has released several pieces through different labels. Now test tube has the honor and delight to release ‘Errant Waves’, one of the most fascinating and best structured pieces that this writer has heard in a big while.
Inscape 10 (track number 1) is a sudden window to ‘Errant Waves’; quickly you are immersed on a strange universe of tiny glitchy sounds and spacey atmospheres. When you already feel familiar and settled with what's going on, distances begin to change and the sounds' source move away, just to come right to your face and then move back again. This song lets you go and grabs you back constantly.
Inscape 11 is a beautiful short piece, with accentuated bass frequencies and beautiful chimey sounds.
Inscape 12 starts slowly, like a dialogue with an alien that is figuring out what to say as he speaks. Suddenly the track takes an upfront louder mood just to fade away and bring some piano notes superbly mixed with sine waves and hi-pitched micro bells-like sounds. Beautiful.
Inscape 13 starts in an amazing way, with a lot of sounds emerging from everywhere while an expanding/compressing sine wave floats in your head. The track reaches a peak when you have all those tiny sounds sparkling right near to your ears just to fade away leaving the background sine alone just to welcome new beautiful elements and textures that fade and so. Beautiful track.
Inscape 14 is a short piece with some incidental melodies and beautiful sounds moving around.
Inscape 15 starts very sudden; this might be the most emotional piece of the record: there is a sweet melodic low frequency background sound, serving as a soul behind all those glitchy and crystalline sounds. A beautiful emotional journey though abstractness.
Inscape 16 starts very slowly, creating tension and expectation, as new elements appear easing the tension, and driving the song into a fascinating path of shy crispness and crystal soundscapes. As the song evolves, a melodic pattern appears, and gives the song a more narrative meaning. Song ends up superbly with some few elements fading away very slowly.
This is a very special album, one to be listened as a whole with no pauses, and that is easy since the structures and progressions are so dynamic and emotionally grabbing.»
- David Velez
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