VARIOUS –
#50: so much achieved, so much left to do
(CD,
12rec)
When celebrating anniversaries such as the fiftieth
release on their label most people would opt to do the extraordinary or to
go way beyond the regular. Not so the fine folks from 12rec who do the
regular. Mainly because until now they have opted to do the special and
extracurricular with each of their forty-nine releases up to now, of which a
lot have been featured on this website for specially that reason. From
Electronica to postrock and from Hip Hop to singer / songwriter and from
there to good old avantgarde and otherordly extremism, the wide spectrum of
good music presented on 12rec was always the main appeal to check back to
their online-store every few weeks. And usually there would be something new
and great available. But also their innovative distribution idea of giving
mp3s away for free and also offering special, handmade covers for physical
CDs. Could that be an option for the sick music industry? Probably not due
to scaleability and the creative commons licence they like to work with, but
it shows what can be done. Anyway, after some years they resume with pride
and a mission statement: so much achieved, so much left to do, and present
their first regular digipak CD under that title, which compiles seventeen
tracks by artists on and around the label and from all the styles they like.
The compilation features stacks of great electronica
and postrock experimentalism. For some reason it seems that
online-music-listeners / searches have a big liking for this kind of music,
whoever knows why? Interestingly most of them are mixed with acoustic sounds
especially by guitars as well. Neuf Meuf include telephone ringing sounds
into their “Let The phone ring”. Daniel Maze is well known for his abilities to
work strange sounds into fascinating songs and Ian D. Hagwood presents a
transcending drone of humming notes and repeated piano chords with sparse
noises here and there. And Konntinent start their track “Dust Cloud
Superhero” with the words that probably define the whole musical vision of
12rec better than any other words: “Sunday afternoon”. That is even more
condensed than a haiku! The track itself is a looming hum with ringing
guitar notes picked and a little underwhelmed singing or talking. Very
peaceful yet full of darkness.
Of singer-songwriters there are Nic Bommarito, even if
he refuses to sing, but the humming and James Taylor like guitar chord
progressions are enough reason for me to label him thus. The Sleeping Tree
mix James Taylor melodies and arrangements with an emotionality that makes
me wonder what would happen when they turned on the amps and distortion,
that they probably would sound like The Weakerthans and could be rocking
festivals in early afternoon sunlight. What a strange idea? And especially Werner Kitzmüller.
The latter one collaborates with Alexandr Vatagin (of Tupolev) who is
known to appear on all kinds of places, so he does on another track as well,
“aus aktuellem Anlass” by Nicolas Bernier, which is a specially
disturbing track of mixed electronic noise, glitches and clicks and a
worried, political stampede of short sentences.
