Reviews

WMIT1008 Keji Hamilton & the Exousia Band - Keji
Vintage Afrobeat from the man who used to open shows for the main man. A mainstay (on guitar and keyboards) of Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 in the 1980s, Keji Hamilton can't be accused of falling too far from the tree musically in the decade since his employer's death. This is Afrobeat much as the man himself played it in the latter years of his career, though it lacks the grit and fury that made Kuti such an important musician in the 1970s. It would be difficult to imagine the Africa 70 recording a tune called Forever Live Jesus (Hamilton is now a pastor in Lagos), for example, although Bambiala (Beggars) and the anti-consumerism Designers would no doubt have been given an uproarious treatment. The band is well drilled, the horns and backing vocals wonderful, but there is never the sense that everything is teetering on the verge of collapse. Which might be why Kuti had him around so long.
-- David Hutcheon, MOJO
 

WM073 Jeff McLeod - At the end of the path
This American guitarist is known from such projects like Gezoleen, Liquid Brick, Autosymptomatic, Doctor Midnight and others. He also cooperated with Steve Albini, Oneiroid Psychosis, Zepubicle and so on. His first solo CD was recorded live on guitar (through Echoplex Digital Pro) and can be considered a total improvisation.

Jeff is experienced mult-instrumentalist, improviser and experimentalist who has been active on scene since the nineties. His music has much to do with psychedelic and ambient tones, that's why it can seem to be very dense and chaotic. Upon listening to "At The End Of The Path", I had an impression of gloomy abyss. One can consider tracks only static, others can regard them as accidental tones. When a microchip is damaged, there is a sonic circuit, sonic mess and sonic revolution within. Jeff's music can splendidly reflect this phenomenon thanks to all his freaky gambits. Every note bits another one, and it gives an insane effect.

Listening to Jeff McLeod's music, you are exposed to get a mind twister, since he is a master of sonic brawl. I am absolutely sure that his music would be a perfect soundtrack to Andrei Tarkovsky's movies, especially "Stalker"! This stuff's greatest virtue is distinctness and originality, so if you want to present a musical joke to somebody, feel free to try "At The End Of The Path" as an example. What about the contests? Nothing balanced, nothing polite, nothing arranged and nothing normal in a word, haha! This is a real music-fiction that can be likeable!
-- Department of Virtuosity

At The End of The Path is an album of two extended guitar improvisations. Jeff McLeod created from the moment with few limits. Track one starts with Hendrix styled wails then shifts to drones and improvised sounds that are minimalist in nature. The second improvised track is very different. A short melodic phrase is played and repeated while various sounds are improvised over it. Eventually it melts into the chaos but order returns. McLeod’s improvisations never really loses its structure making the listener involved in its outcome. These two tracks are a fascinating exercise in musical cause and effect. Recommended for the adventurous listener.
-- Free Albums Galore

WM056: Lee Rosevere - Play 2
From found radio to warped vinyl, the source material that comprises Lee Rosevere's Play 2, on the WM netlabel, all comes across a little warped, a little nostalgic, a little maudlin, which is all to Rosevere's credit. From the flurry of violins on "The Missing Shadow" (MP3), mixed until they collectively achieve a supple quality, to the bunker realism of the mashed up broadcast signals on "Nobody Goes to Heaven" (MP3), to the angelic tones of "Pendulum" (MP3), Rosevere manages to tweak existing sound enough to make it his own, leaving a taste of the original intact. That violin montage, "Missing Shadow," was done on the same equipment as "Pendulum," a sampler with a whole four seconds of memory to its credit. This background studio information comes courtesy of some useful liner notes Rosevere has posted along with the music. More info on Rosevere at happypuppyrecords.
-- Disquiet.com

WM050: Zloty Dawai - Dada Work Chant
The five person improvisation group Zloty Dawai likes to live on the edge. Their albums are recorded in one take with no editing and no overdubbing. Their previous album on WM recordings received raves from Free Album Galore and from just about everyone who listened to it. Their new album Dada Work Chant is another amazing sound experience.
As with the last album, Zloty Dawai intermingles ambient soundscapes with long doses of avant-garde jazz and noise. Their effortless ability to go from dreamscapes to chaos is fascinating. There is a special empathy between the musicians. This type of music always runs the risk of sounding indulgent and meaningless. Yet there is a clear communication of structure and meaning in this improvisatory feast. This is an experimental music album that begs for repeated listenings. There is so much going on that each listen will reveal new layers.
-- Free Albums Galore

WM041: Various Artists - We're not in it for the money
It's always good to hear something new from my own soil, and this time it's even two labels: WM Recordings from Heerlen and Rallehond Records from Dordrecht/Breda, all three cities wide apart in The Netherlands, actually. They see it as their as their task to present 'musicians in a professional way'. These musicians play a variety of music: none of these labels operate in one specific style. In most of these fourteen pieces, none by anyone I ever heard of, can be classified as 'influenced by popmusic', but some drift far apart. Sometimes pretty straight forward rock/dance influenced as with Happy Elf, acoustic guitars and vocals by Kinley Caliper and CobsOn, electro pop by Flexor, Anton Oosterwijk, and Nambavan. The weirder pieces are by the ambient guitars by Century Of Aeroplanes (who sound like Radiohead on a lot of drugs) or the downright ambient music of Lee Rosevere and Sid Peacock and the classical piano composition by Romme Bliger or TROY's chamber music piece , to end with the weirdest of all Stefan van den Hout whistling in his living room. Like said, none of these names may mean anything, but all tracks are free to download, so perhaps there is something in there for everyone.
-- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

WM038: Mellsch - Mellsch
Mellsch grants us here a beautiful minimal ambient release. Although the general structure of the music is based on continuous and omnipresent spoken words sequences , each track comes wrapped in a different layer as we can hear anything from clean classical instruments to electronic sounds. The music goes on a steady and unchanging pace accompanying the poetry of Ruud Linssen which his sung in dutch (unfortunatly for non-dutch speakers). The tone of Linssen's voice along with the low volume of the background sounds make the whole quite relaxing while keeping a certain touch of bleakness.
-- Sothzine

WM030: Sid Peacock - You can't buy everything forever
You Can’t Buy Everything Forever is a free sampler album available at WM Recordings. Each of its seven track display various aspects of Peacock’s talents. The first three tracks involves his 11 piece band Surge. They are the best tracks on the album. The band soars and growls through Peacocks’ compositions with good dosages of humor and virtuosity. Of the other tracks, “Orchard Way” is an electro-acoustic piece that is serene and lovely. ” Seagull Choking on a Ring Pull” is electronic, very brief, and as weird as the title would suggest. “Bongo Psilocybin” is a perky but complex chamber work. The last track is spoken word with Hydrogen Jukebox and sounds a bit out of place after the music that preceded it. But overall, Sid Peacock & Surge impresses me as artists that can swing, rock, and be a little crazy in a good way.
-- Free Albums Galore

WM029: daghoti. - i've got braces, too!
What can I say about the music, It's a strange and unique album, Daghoti has definitely let out what flew through his mind, strange time-signatures, vocal samples here and there, a breakbeat entering when you least thought of it, definitely eclectic sound collages, think about Wevie Stonder meets Stephane Obadia. Hurray for the originality...
-- Undomondo.com

Daghoti's I've Got Braces, Too! is 11 tracks of what might have been referred to as mashed-up sound clips before the term "mash" came to signify the coy yoking together of specifically two unlike riffs. Pulsing like cheap neon, tawdry as all get out, the album rarely juggles fewer than a half dozen different sources at a given time, yet never lapses into chaos-for-plunderphonics'-sake. This may be the best fake spy tunes and porn-score cues since Funki Porcini's Hed Phone Sex. While it's entirely understandable why swaths of ambience and chunks of automaton electronica are available for free download from countless netlabels, the availability of an album like Daghoti's is unusual, given the evident painstaking craft (a word that may sound silly in light of the snippets of dirty dialogue, but it still applies). The big question, though, isn't why this is being given away. It's why hasn't Ninja Tune Records picked it up for distribution?
-- Disquiet.com

WM017: Happy Elf - Alone
Nie war Retropop so frisch und innovativ, wie es diese 5 Track EP des elektronischen "Wunderkindes" Jeroen Elfferich beweist. Hier werden alte 80iger Anologsynths aus dem Keller geholt, noch einen Schuß Pop mit reingemischt und mit einer distorted Vocal noch gewürzt.
Raus kommen dabei 5 sehr knackige Elektropop Schmankerl, die sich in jedem Club bestens einpassen und der Gemeinde das Underground Pop-Feeling vergangener Tage nochmals aufleben lassen.
"My Monkey" wird sicherlich früher oder später in die Hände von Hell fallen und im Set verbraten werden.
-- Mando

WM016: Salam - Salam
I really enjoyed the music you just put out...it's great to hear modern Senegalese music after hearing so much Orchestra Baobab. Thank you!
-- James Dilworth

An extraordinary and refreshing release.
-- Starfrosch

It's nice to hear an 'ethnic' release in the netaudio community. There so much good talent in this field of music and it rarely gets exposed beyond live, local gigs. Keep it up WM!
-- Grant Kid (Numia/slskrex)

Maybe its just a coincidence or a start of a welcome new trend but the netaudio scene gets another world music release, this time from WM Recordings. It's finest african folk pop by a senegalese band Salam taken from their live performances. Miraculous percussion with guitar and violin influenced by the sound of the Casamance (a river in Senegal apparently).
Quite enchanting music really, genuine folk influences with the high energy charge of a live performance. Those violin solos just blow me away every time.
-- .Phonq

WM014: Zloty Dawai - Teleopsis belzebuth
Fact is, there's good chaos and bad chaos. And sometimes improv works, sometimes it doesn't. Though I can't articulate why, Teleopsis Belzebuth is good, and it works. It's noisy, unpredictable, exciting, and unedited. The title track is especially fascinating: I love the tortured, processed voices primitively reacting to the fearsomely chaotic music growing around them (it's an idea repeated elsewhere on the album). It calls to mind a small group of frightened Neanderthals surrounded by giant bug-like aliens in shaky, legged transports.
-- Luke @ Free Albums Galore

WM009: Happy Elf - First contact
This music surely has some elf-magic in it. It makes me very cheerfull each time I hear it.
-- Splogman

Love the music, escpecially "Bingo in the Country".
-- Wonder Al

Bounce bounce bounce... nice!
-- Love Field

WM008: Roy "Chicky" Arad - Sputnik in love
The decision of Chicky to run away from definitions – writing or producing definitions – makes these two albums [Sputnik in love and Monster] the first interesting releases of 2005(…). The easiness of his movement between the serious to the amusing, from Daniel Johnston to Kiss, is the thing that makes him one of the most interesting people in Israeli musical and artistic scene.
-- Debaser, Indie.co.il -- see full article here

WM007: Phil Reavis - Driving me backwards
This is unbelievably great. very smoooth.
-- Fred G. Sanford

Kind of like a rough Dick Dale, some real great material in amongst this lot if you like that twangy guitar sound.
-- Grebo, Vanity Project Web Skimmer

WM005: Jan Turkenburg - Splogman's sixth sense
I'm in 7th heaven when i listen to the Tree of Temptation. This album is excellent as usual, Jan!
-- Chenard Walcker

VERY POWERFUL. Religious. Hip. Cool. Hot in the sense of PASSION.
-- Dennis Hermanson

WM002: Chenard Walcker - Rain
Another good bundle of plunderphonic goodness from Mr. Chenard Walcker. Having heard many of his cut-and-paste albums, I can only speculate what sort of treasure trove of vinyl albums be must have to cull his source material from. My favorites on this EP are the tracks "Rainy Day" and "Water."
-- C.P. McDill, Webbed Hand Records

WM001: Various Artists - Water, wind and sails
Love that Penguin! Daan sounds like Daniel Johnston.
-- Squirrel @ Metafilter.com

The release flows across genres from bluegrass to the avant garde. A track that instantly won my heart was De Zwervende Keien's "Camille's Aquarium," a brief rendition of Camille Saint-Saens's (1835-1921) "Aquarium" from his Carnival of the Animals (1886).
-- Katyana, Oddiooverplay.com