VARIOUS ARTISTS – million ways to spend your time

(CD, quasi pop)

“Million ways to spend your time” was released in 2006 already, but since I don’t care for news value on the one hand, and because it is a long way from the Ukraine to my door on the other hand, I don’t give a flying damn. Moreover, there are many a well known names from the last century on this record – well known in the noise / avantgarde / electro-acoustic experimentalism world, that is. More reasons to spend some time – and if the the choices are as multiple as is hinted at in the title of this album, then reasons is all that matters. Involvement and relevance are the key factors to chosing one compilation over another. Oh yeah, and curiosity.

It is always somewhat of a drag to write about compilations because at least one paragraph is wasted for a long line of artists with short descriptions of what they did on the respective platter. It is almost like an unavoidable law. So here we go and I’ll safe some for an overview for later on, but I promise I’ll only mention my highlight and those are many: Black To Comm does an enormous non-moving drone with “Sleeep”, but three vocals aren’t even close enough to describe this. Peel off the Bass don’t get rid of their bass but offer a moving, ever-changing, bass / drum – driven piece of instrumental music that is fun and joy to listen to. Nowhere as harsh or structurally weird and heavy to listen to as “Straum og Honning” by Filament. Is it the sounds being manipulated or is it the listener? I didn’t even know TV Pow were still around, because my last release by them is well over ten years old and tha was a transparent seven inch single. I remember that so well, because I listened to it several times in a row and afterwards I was still unable to describe what I heard. Some things never change, obviously. Is it electronic? Looped? Industrial clicks in the rubble box? Some nerds doing lasersword-fights with amplified pinpointpens? Then some field recordings of street noise with birdsong and then ultra-high frequencies mixing in. I haven’t got a clue. I need a break.

Since I mentioned that the label quasi pop comes from the Ukraine it was obvious that Andrey Kiritchenko would pop up somewhere. Nevertheless, this is not at all a compilation about the Ukraine or north-eastern noise scene, the scope of “million ways…” is much too international for that. Though, on the other hand, I know that the Ukraine is a hot spot for interesting, far out music (see Zavoloka, Kotra, etc. as well). It is no surprise at all to find Lasse Marhaug on here. At the moment it seems that it is more difficult to find a record without him on there somewhere than vice versa. ”Spook Asphalt” is hushing white noise mixed with a guitar lick in the back and it ends in a big wave of white noise. No misconceptions or disappointments there, as always. Lasse Marhaug has been doing this for so long, you start to wonder if he puts am radio to a not-carrying frequency so he can sleep. Origami Epileptika is another well known name from years hence, and theirs is a guitar-driven instrumental track that stands out from the crowd for its avantgarde bluesiness. O.Lamm is another name that has come up within these pages some time ago.

Interestingly, with the second half of this compilation the names I know start to cede and it’s all new artists. Of those I found Batcheeba the most interesting and outstanding, probably because “Are you afraid” is the only track on the whole compilation that uses female vocals extensively. (CharSky’s “Cats and Dogs” and Biblioteka Prospero’s “V Pleske Lezvly” are both some kind of russian songwriter tales and the only other songs using vocals at all.) Over a subtle background of harsh noise explosions Batcheeba cites lyrics about destruction and loneliness, or something, in a way that is somewhere between state theatre and Bjork. The other tracks and artists are good, too, definitely worth listening to, if you like anything from the electro-acoustic or experimental music areas. In other words, if you listen to the Wire tappers. There might be better ways to spend your time than listening to “million ways to spend your time”, but it is in the high thousands nevertheless. Well, mostly because there are many things more important and much better than listening to music first, but you catch my drift, right? Get a set of open ears and an open mind, and joy awaits you at the end of your (aural) travel.