KARL BÖSMANN/ULTRA MILKMAIDS/H.HASEGAWA/J.VAN DEN DOBBELSTEN

4 Track 12" LP, lim. 150 numbered copies w/ 5 inserts, red vinylThe original on one side and the remixes on the other side. Maybe that's a way to do it. I am wary of all the remixes going on and perhaps also in this case, I am not sure what purposes the remixes actually serve. Karl Bösmann plays zither, bows, voice, hammer, ventillation, timpani, trumpet and trombone in the twenty minute title piece. I usually quite like his work and this new piece is no different. It seems to creating a hiatus with his older work in that it all seems to be derived from acoustic sound sources, rather than electronics. Its slowly building up, layer by layer and from a certain point on a moire like effect takes place, of shifting sounds, moving in and out of the mix. A fine complexity of dense sounds arrives and has a weird, almost avant-folk like character. Think Idea Fire Company meeting Sandoz Lab Technicians. Three remixes on the other side. The first is by Jan van den Dobbelsteen, The Netherlands' more conceptual composer. I have no idea what he did t o the material, but 'radical rework' surely applies here. A static beep, like an alarm clock, repeated over and over. A great idea, but perhaps too long for the radical nature of the piece. Or way too short. Ultra Milkmaids do also a form of reduction but in a more musical way, bringing everything down to just a few meandering organ like sounds. Easily too short. Hiroshi Hasegawa, sometimes known as Astro, on the other hand does what he does best, which is putting down a fine psychedelic mix of noise like sounds. Maybe a bit compressed together (maybe the lack of proper mastering), but it works quite well. Three entirely different remixes, none of which resembles the original at all. Now that's what I call a great remix project. (label info)