Sandoz: Dark Continent

After the dissolution of Cabaret Voltaire in 1994, after twenty years of some of the most adventurous and compelling electronic music around, Richard H. Kirk threw himself into a prodigious period of work, releasing many recordings under a panoply of nom de plumes.

One that he'd started in CV's last phase of work and then expanded on afterward was Sandoz, launched in 1992 and named for the Swiss pharmaceutical laboratory where LSD was developed in the late 1930s.  There have been several Sandoz releases over the years and Dark Continent, which came out in 1996 on tJon Wonzencroft's great Touch label, is a particular favorite.  The album is culled from two sessions, starting with a six-song extended play that appeared in 1993 and then another quartet of pieces recorded three years later for the CD release.

Sandoz has strong elements of African rhythm and percussion, as well as reggae and dub touches (a Sandoz album, the excellent Chant to Jah, was devoted to the latter) layered in with often lush electronic sounds.  Dark Continent is a very consistent recording in terms of the quality of the pieces which always manage to provide distinctive aural touches among the steady repetition of rhythms and beats.

In late 2016, Mute Records issued a box set of Sandoz recordings from 1992-1994 including a remastered version of Dark Continent, the original of which has long been out of print and can be hard to find.  That set and a larger collection of Kirk solo work issued at the same time provide a great overview of the work of a prolific and diverse artist using electronic musical resources to always compelling effect.

Richard H. Kirk: Step, Write, Run: Alphaphone, Vol. 1

From 1974 to 1994, Richard H. Kirk was a member of the great electronic group Cabaret Voltaire, but he also maintained a solo career from time to time, starting with the remarkable 1978 release Disposable Half-Truths to 1983's Time High Fiction, and a pair of 1986 albums, Black Jesus Voice and Ugly Spirit. 

After his CV partner, Stephen Mallinder decamped to Australia in 1993 and a last album, the phenomenal The Conversation was released, Kirk found himself truly solo and it seemed to liberate him.  Through the 90s, he worked at a prolific pace, though once when asked how he could release so many albums, he answered in typically modest and matter-of-fact fashion that the technology made it easier.

The 90s was also the peak of the electronica/techno scene and, though Kirk did not become nearly as commercially successful as such performers as Moby, The Orbital, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and others, he created a body of work that was highly diverse (in a world that could be immersed in a numbing sameness) and utterly distinctive.

Kirk's desire to put the music forward first and his resistance to image meant, among other things, that he employed a dizzying array of monikers for his many projects.  The most well-known of these was his Sandoz project, which began in the early 90s, with others like Electronic Eye, Nitrogen, Orchestra Terrestrial, and many more being utilized during the decade.  There were a few releases under his own name, as well, including one already highlighted here, 1994's Virtual State.

During the first part of that decade, Kirk created a label called Alphaphone that released several 12" vinyl recordings under more noms de plume.  In 1996, the Touch label, which has put out a number of Kirk-related albums over the years, issued a compilation double-disc recording titled Step, Write, Run: Alphaphone, Vol. 1.  While there haven't been subsequent volumes, this amazing album, characteristically devoid of any overt references to Kirk, reflects someone at the peak of their powers utilizing digital technology to create fascinating music.

The five aliases employed here include Papadoctrine, Multiple Transmission, International Organisation, Cold Warrior and Robots + Humanoids.  There are three tracks from the first, two for the second, one from the third, four from the fourth and three from the fifth.  Sequencing appears to have been directed towards a more techno oriented sound for the first disc and material on the second that moved in a more ambient direction.

The variety is compelling, with the Papadoctrine and Multiple Transmission material featuring the fastest material and highest bpm, somewhat akin to the 2-disc Nitrogen album, Intoxica, that also came out in 1996.  "Hybrid Energy" kicks things off with a bracing rhythm and lots of great electronic touches, including some percussive elements that keep things moving.  "Dreamreader" slows things down a bit, though there is a steady bongo and cymbal rhythm throughout most of the 10 1/2 minute piece and some recorded voices that break up the material.  "Red Menace" under the International Organisation moniker is somewhat slower and brings in some R&B touches.  A continuing Kirk motif dealing with religious preachers is emphasized in "Antichrist," a Multiple Transmission track that closes the first disc.

The second disc has more of the atmospheric sounds, samples and slower rhythms and beats mentioned above and somewhat reminiscent of Kirk's Electronic Eye work of the period.  An air of mystery pervades the opening to "Yellow Square," the first of four Cold Warrior tracks, before a repeated guitar-like riff enters and a steady drum pattern emerges, followed by another tribal percussive groove.  Another haunting opening brings in "Walk East" which, with its Indian vocal and tabla samples, takes to a stronger ambient path though supplied with a steady electronic bass drum rhythm.  The 11 1/2 minute "Witch Hunt" has a muted snare beat followed by a variety of interesting electronic sounds, some imbued with echo, and a catchy repetitive theme takes over highlighted by a bass-like element.  "Modern Art" has a flute-like opening interspersed with more spaced-out echoey electronic sounds, some of which sounds like it belongs with Cabaret Voltaire's 1992 album Plasticity.  The fastest rhythms of the disc are here, as well, with more cool percussive touches and a five-note pattern overlaid on a three-note figure on keyboards.

The Robots + Humanoids material includes "Indigo Octagon" which has a dripping water like sound and a single-note echoed figure, with a string-like background and other notable sounds over a steady snare.  Guitar-like riffs including a cool three-note one that stands out, nifty cymbal-like sounds, and more sampled singing voices make this a standout track.  "Paranoia" is probably named for its trippy opening with more echoed sounds deep in the mix and an eerie keyboard riff leading to a eight-note bass figure that sets the tone for the piece.  The closer "Moment of Truth" has a four-note opening figure that ends in silence before repeating and then joining with a higher-toned snare and an echoed three-note pattern and a three-note percussive accompaniment.  Later in the track more standout electronic figures, including that one that sounds like a higher toned violin bring the piece to a fade out.  Kirk's way of layering sounds is as well-developed on this piece as anywhere on the record.

This album probably encapsulates the diversity and variety of material that Kirk began to develop from the early 90s with Sandoz and which has largely continued to today, though he is not quite as prolific as he was in the years after Cabaret Voltaire quietly ceased working.  There are a number of great albums from his busy mid-90s period, including the aforementioned Nitrogen release, Virtual State, the Electronic Eye album, Closed Circuit, and the amazing Sandoz release, Dark Continent.

Step, Write, Run: Alphaphone, Vol. 1 is one of the great recordings in the 40-year career of a greatly underappreciated sound sculptor (Kirk has, many times, downplayed being a musician, so perhaps "sound sculptor" is more apt?)  Electronic music is often thought of as being one-dimensional, cold, and artificial, but Kirk manages in an album like this to show many facets of a form of music that can be more diverse and sensory than if often assumed with processed sound.  Let's hope he has much more to contribute from the evolving electronic palette from his Western Works Studio.

Richard H. Kirk:  Step, Write, Run: Alphaphone, Vol. 1 (Touch, 1996)

Disc One:  Papadoctrine
1.  Hybrid Energy  8:09
2.  Dreamreader  10:34
3.  Flesh Hunter  9:24

Multiple Transmission
4.  Low Load  8:22

International Organisation
5.  Red Menace  8:24

Multiple Transmission
6.   Antichrist  5:44

Disc Two:  Cold Warrior
1.  Yellow Square  7:06
2.  Walk East  9:35
3.  Witch Hunt 11:30
4.  Modern Art  8:37

Robots + Humanoids
5.  Indigo Octagon  8:10
6.  Paranoia  4:52
7.  Moment of Truth  8:50

Chris Watson: Outside the Circle of Fire

This blog simply posits that music is organized sound.  In the case of Chris Watson's remarkable Outside the Circle of Fire, the sound is produced by animals in nature, captured by Watson's highly-advanced recording equipment and brilliant techniques of placement of microphones, and then edited into an album format.  This is certainly not music in the popular sense, but one could argue that it is quite musical.

As a statement on the back tray of the CD case observes, "these are the sounds of secret languages, particular events that have been recorded as close up as possible to try and reveal something of their individual beauty, rhythm, eloquence and sheer power."  Watson's adroit use of technology, his keen understanding of natural environments and the incredible patience this must have required waiting for the right moment to capture a particularized moment of sounds that could not otherwise be heard by humans make this a profound experience, if it can be accepted that these recordings of animals in nature are of music.

Watson first came to attention in the human music world as a founding member of the experimental "industrial" trio, Cabaret Voltaire.  From 1974, he and band mates Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk huddled in Watson's loft in the gritty industrial city of Sheffield, England with rudimentary tape machines, synthesizers, drum machines, bass and electric guitars, wind instruments and other material and forged an unusual world of sound that had song-like structures, but leavened (if that is the right word) with a wild admixture of harsh, abrasive, highly-treated sounds.  Not musicians in the traditional sense, the trio nonetheless created a way of making music wholly their own and, by the time they began recording for the indie label Rough Trade in 1978, they were getting some recognition.

Cabaret Voltaire issued a few albums, some EPs and several singles until Watson departed to take up a career as a television sound recordist.  Continuing in that line of work, he also formed a new group, the Hafler Trio, which made highly experimental and idiosyncratic music over its long run.  But, Watson's later recognition came with his staggering sound work with natural environments as shown in television and documentaries.  When the very interesting and eclectic Touch label began releasing some of his independent work, Watson had a new portfolio of several awesome recordings of which this an important entry.

From Africa to South and Latin America to the British Isles, Outside the Circle of Fire consists of twenty-two pieces capturing animals of the land, sea and air making their music in a variety of settings.  The opening piece of a cheetah resting under a baobab tree in Zimbabwe sounds much like some of the electronic equipment Cabaret Voltaire employed in its early experimental days.  Other pieces are of hippopotami surfacing on a river in Kenya, birds chattering in the forests of Costa Rica, the roar of a stag in a Scottish forest, vultures feeding on a zebra corpse, also in Kenya, and many other fascinating environmental soundscapes, as well.

Most of these works were recorded in the middle 1990s, with one going back to 1983, consisting of a group of kittiwakes at nesting sites near a castle in northern England, and others coming in the late 80s and early 90s.  One was even the sound of beetles making sounds in the oaken beams of Watson's home, so he quickly set up his recording devices and captured the busy work of those creatures.

As noted above, many of these sounds are reminiscent of the electronic work Watson had done with Cabaret Voltaire--with rhythms, tone, dynamics and even melody that evoke some of that mid-70s to early 80s experimentation done by three humans in their natural habitat.  So, maybe the transition from that to these ambient nature recordings isn't that far removed.

But, is it music?