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Jazzkammer: Rolex
CD - Smalltown Supersound, Norway - 2001
Reviews:
JAZZKAMMER, "ROLEX"
Jazzkammer are the Norwegian duo Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre. After two albums they've opted to make the third a collection of remixes for the Smalltown
Supersound label. This means they have more time for snowball fights or whatever
it is they do to keep themselves amused when they're not creating collages of
glitch, noise, pop, static and those little pasta stars that are good in soup.
Although this is a collection of remixes, it holds together pretty well as an
album taking in candle flicker glitchscapes from relatively unknown Norwegians,
big loping looping international laptop noise eruptions from Pita, Zbigniew
Karkowski and Merzbow and some deep haunting ambience from Francisco López and Reynols. The biggest name amongst mixers is Thurston Moore (didn't he used to
play kazoo for the Butthole Surfers or something?) and after I picked up a great
little free jazz freak out Schneider remix of his from a bargain bin, I was
curious to hear what he'd get up to here. He basically hacks up a lot of noise
skree with cackhanded scratch attacks on jazz and disco cheese and the effect is
like quickly tuning a radio dial whilst all the stations are broadcasting
competitions for the worst DJ on the most fucked up turntable. Some people in
very popular rock bands obviously don't take themselves as seriously as
Radiohead, for which I'm grateful! Most of this has the aura of Mego-like laptop feuds, and Pita of Mego is present and incorrect. Sometimes Jazzkammer gets cranked up to full on aural assault, at others it crackles away to itself in the background. Perhaps the most curious of the Norwegian tracks is the silly 'I Hate Cars (Super Chicken Floppy Willy in a PPP Swimsuit)' from Maja S.K. Ratkje during which she splices up maniacal laughter with grinding soundcard flotsam and rapid peak and trough tough noise edits. It rises to a succinctly effective crescendo that puts the more well known noiseniks in the shade. Latterly TV Pow slowly builds up subtle eerie drones under a canopy of grasshopper leg crackle, until suddenly the hum shifts
to the foreground. Jørgen Traeen changes the mood with a rapid cut up 'Dupermix'
which stutters and splurts like clipped mute firecrackers. Two tracks stand out
a mile from the rest. The closing epic of slow seeping high tones and stretched
glitch pitches from Francisco López is the most involving, evolving and
enjoyable thing I've heard from him, and if there aren't recordings of icey
winds howling on this then it really is even more uncanny in its glacial
eeriness. The similarly reflective deep droner from Argentinian trio Reynols is
beautifully assured enough to have me keeping an ear out for them in future.
Towards the end of it some indecipherable vocal noises are pretty unsettling,
sounding like some struggling lost soul trapped in the machine.
(Graeme Rowland, brainwashed.com)
JAZZKAMMER: Rolex CD
After the release of their first two albums Timex (on Rune Grammofon,1999) and
Hot Action Sexy Karaoke (on Ground Fault, 2000), Jazzkammer members Lasse
Marhaug and John Hegre invited a number of artists to remix and rework their
material. Rolex is comprised of 14 tracks and features contributions from the
likes of Zbigniew Karkowski, Merzbow, Thurston Moore, Francisco López, Reynolds,
Pita, R. Sundin and others. Jazzkammer themselves offer two of their own
remixes. Not being familiar with the original material, I can't say much about
how the original tracks have been transformed by each of the contributors, but I
can evaluate each of the contributions on their own merits. Jazzkammer seems to
work on an abstract electronic-noise-static-pulse dynamic, since all of the
compositions have at least the traces of this (admittedly vague) common thread.
And yet here the similarities stop, as each of the contributions is a distinct
sound world, independent of the others and always different than the last.
Consider the harsh cutups in Thurston Moore's contribution, or the haunting
atmospheres by Reynolds, a quiet ode by López, the subtle frequencies and light
touches of Alexander Richaug's piece, or a child's laughter in the track by Maja
S.K. Ratkje. The transitions from piece to piece, and even the transitions
within each track, are often sharp and unexpected, which makes for a provoking
(if uneasy) listening experience. Yet all of this is not without its rewards.
Favourites for me are contributions by Karkowski, Reynolds, Tore Honoré Bøe, TV
Pow and López, but I could easily name a few more. Jazzkammer's own
contributions are also among the most captivating here. A few of these
contributors are new names for me, and their contributions promise possibly
great things to come. Be prepared for a thrilling, bumpy ride.
(Richard di Santo, Incursion.com)
Jazzkammer - "Rolex" [Smalltown Supersound]:
Last fall I was somewhat mystified to receive "Le Jazz Non: A Compilatin of
Norwegian Noise". Though I didn't expect Norway to have much to offer the world
of noise, it took me about 5 seconds of Lasse Marhaug's "Light Silence" to
realize that this was one of my favorites of the year. Also featured on the CD
is Jazzkammer, Marhaug's collaboration John Hegre. Their track stood out as my
favorite on the disc, so I was certainly excited to receive their newest album,
"Rolex", a collection of remixes of songs from their first two albums by artists
such as Merzbow, Thurston Moore and Reynols. It does not disappoint. The album
is very harsh, containing a wide variety of sounds from chunky Atari noises to
white noise. Usually looped and always quite distorted. Very good.
(Jacob Heule, allsound.org)
Jazzkammer: Rolex CD Smalltown Supersound.
Just when you thought it was safe to emerge from behind the sofa and along comes
this little delight. I fear for the discerning ear only as 'Rolex' is an
extraordinary collection of spasmodic grooves, threatening ambience, wayward
weariness and shifting sonic extremes. If your ears need syringing or that hi-fi
needs putting through its paces then this is the album for the job.
'Rolex' is a remix album of sorts, featuring guest artists with such repute as
Merzbow, Thurston Moore and TV Pow re-arranging selected materials from Lasse
Marhaug and John Hegre AKA Jazzkammer's first two albums, 'Timex' and 'Hot
Action Sexy Karaoke'. Not to be out done, the duo even get to offer two further
re-readings themselves to great effect.
As scary as it is testing, 'Rolex' offers no reprieve from the maelstrom of
sonic violence, electronic voidness and eerie festivities. When it's noisy,
which it often is, it's like a bloodbath scene from a Hitchcock horror, when
it's quiet it parades with equal menace like the lull before the storm. Opening with Zbigniev Karkowski's 'Timex Remix', a turbulent mass of feedback machinations and sounding like the rocket flares of a Space mission cruiser, the initial parts of this collection follow in similar hot pursuit. Maja S.K. Ratkje offer up the deeply unsettling 'I hate Cars', the mischievous and impish laughter contrasts with the chilled schizophrenic backdrop of horror style electronica. Perhaps the albums highlight is 'Freemix Norwave' the contribution from Thurston Moore, in some ways quite poppy considering its surroundings and the clever insistence of using disco grooved samples straight from Studio 54. Between all this there are effective moments of subliminal noise mayhem as Thurston makes full use of a manic jazz like fusion with scratch elements, a real teaser. Jazzkammer for their part offer two of the collections strangest moments. 'I don't want it to go that far' dips between seriously tense silent moments, I know this doesn't make any real sense but you have to hear it to understand. 'Silver Spider Morning Part 2' is equally frugal with the tune, instead
immersing itself into a disturbing arrangement that declares itself not of this
planet. Both Alexander Rishaug whose 'Corn Flex 1.4' is reduced to the almost silent
sound of ticks and R.Sundin's 'Mayflower' with it's apparent eerie near nonexistent
effects really ought to lay off listening to Pimmon such are the alienated textures they weave. From thereon in this album takes a decidedly more ambient route, crafting together dark electronic influence and suffusing them with laptop mechanics. A consuming album and a must for those who likes their melodies a little further rooted than simply skin deep.
(unknown online review)
JAZZKAMMER - ROLEX (CD by Smalltown Supersound)
The title of this CD is actually sort of misleading, because not only is
Jazzkammer on it (twice), but also Zbigniew Karkowski, Maja S.K. Ratkje,
Merzbow, Reynols, Thurston Moore, Pita, Alexander Rishaug, R. Sundin, T.H. Boe,
TV Pow, J¯rgen TrÊn and Francisco Lopez. All of these have been invited by
Jazzkammer to remix material from their two first albums. Of course, with so
many people involved, this is a CD with many sides and many approaches. Some are
close to the original Jazzkammer style, others are way off and some are
basically themselves. The disc opens with a very crunchy track by Karkowski,
very digitally distorted, that gets denser all the way through. No telling what
he did to the original piece(s), but it sounds good. Maja Ratkje seems to be
more in tune with the original material, using voice with FX, nifty cut ups and
some funky loops. Someone is actually laughing until noise blasts in. A very
exciting track. Next up is Merzbow with a very quiet start (for his standards,
that is): some rumbles and hisses are looped and are getting louder and then
here's that typical Merzbow sound cutting in. But then he goes quiet again, just a low rumble and then new cuts. From here the piece builds up steadily, but dynamically.
Jazzkammer have probably used the same material for the next part as Merzbow
did, but obviously it sounds very different. More distant and atmospherical and
with a slower build up. Even more so is the track by Reynols: crackles, distant
guitars and maybe a voice? This could almost be considered an ambient version.
Interesting, to say the least. Thurston Moore blasts us right off our feet with
overload noise, cut with dance beats and other turntable samples. Pretty
exciting stuff, although the scratching in the end could have been better.
Pita's track consists of a relatively small number of samples, but they are used
to their full extent, which makes this piece a pleasure to listen to. Jazzkammer
again, using old vinyl to start a track of loops and cuts with subtle drones
underneath, followed by tones and weird sounds, followed by field recordings,
followed by loops, followed by cuts, and so on. A very good and rich track.
Alexander Rishaug's piece is a very quiet one, with beeps and buzzes, and a
strong sense of suspense. Very well done. R. Sundin's track is also of a quiet
nature, starting with environmental recordings of someone doing something (?),
but with a glitch once. Then a door closes and there is a short silence ad then
the real thing starts: a gentle drone layered with crackles and other short
sounds. And then the glitch again. Short, but good. The fourth and last
scandinavian in this row is T. H. Boe with some kind of feedback piece, but the
feedback sounds kind of funny and quiet. Note the bass drone underneath! Another
good piece. TV Pow appear with a digital version of the tracks before, it seems.
Also pretty quiet, but certainly with a tension that rises slowly and with a
superb last part. J¯rgen TrÊn gets back to Jazzkammer basics again: cuts of
noises and crackles, but with some very very nifty beats and tunes. Last one up
is Francisco Lopez with a track that starts with a very slow fade in to what is
probably a mix of Jazzkammer tracks, layered on top of each other. There is an
eerie and desolate feel to this piece, that builds up gradually to high pitched
tones, with a distant drone underneath, and ends with a volume cut and a very
slow fade out. This is defenitely one of the better compilations, partly because
there is a coherent source of material and partly, of course, because of the
invited artists.
(Roel Meelkop, Vital Weekly)
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