Machinefabriek: Stroomtoon II
"In December 2011 I recorded the album Stroomtoon, which was released by the French Nuun label the year after. The music was constructed using recordings from improvisations with a setup that I was trying out for upcoming live performances. It's actually the same setup that I still use nowadays, consisting of an old Phillips analogue tone generator and a selection of effects pedals.
The Stroomtoon album still feels like an accomplishment. It's layered, subtle and considered, but I wanted to see if I could try a rougher sound, to capture the exhilaration I sometimes feel when performing live. So I recorded more material, picked out the best moments, and edited them without adding too much post-production. This time I really tried to keep things pure and even a bit raucous.
When the labels Fake Jazz and Superior Standards asked me to release material on lathe cut singles, I knew this would be perfect for the music I was working on. The length limitation of a 7-inch worked nicely for these pieces, creating to-the-point, rounded off stories in barely four minutes, with no room for bullshit. Music that's in a way simple but effective, maybe even with some sort of 'pop-sensibility', if I dare say so...
After making these six Stroomtoon tracks and having them released on extremely limited lathe cuts, I realised what a shame it was that hey were so limited, and that they weren't gathered on one medium, like the first Stroomtoon album. With the extra value of having them in a much better sound quality then the lathes, I decided to compile them on this cd, adding two other tracks that were released on lathe as well, my personal favorites 'Kreupelhout' and 'Toendra', and the track 'Stroop', that was made for a compilation. These extra tracks fitted perfectly with the new Stroomtoon material, and altogether, it doesn't sound like a mishmash, but delivers a coherent listening experience.
Then there's the art of Rebecca Norton. She got in contact when I was working on the material. Browsing her website, her 'the affine(s): small paintings' series immediately struck me as perfectly fitting the music I was working on. They're spiky, concentrated shapes felt like perfect visualizations of the Stroomtoon tracks. And that's when all fell into place."
1 Stroomtoon Tien
2 Stroomtoon Zeven
3 Kreupelhout
4 Stroomtoon Elf
5 Stroomtoon Negen
6 Toendra
7 Stroomtoon Acht
8 Stroomtoon Zes
9 Stroop
Audio CD, 6 panels digipak
40 minutes+
Release date: May 2012
12 Euros + shipping order
Special offer: Buy this CD now and you can have Beequeen's "Time Waits For No One" (Cat.0801) & Roel Meelkop's "Oude Koeien" (Cat.1003) on HALF PRICE!
Promo clips on flac [lossless]:
Machinefabriek
https://archive.org/download/TheSoun...oomtoonII.flac
Roel Meelkop's Oude Koeien.
https://archive.org/download/TheSoun...udeKoeien.flac
Beequeen's Time Waits For No One.
https://archive.org/download/TheSoun...ueenTWFNO.flac
Vital Weekly
Late 2011 Rutger Zuydervelt recorded his album 'Stroomtoon', partly as a way to test his new live set up of an old Philips analogue tone generator and effect units. 'Stroomtoon' was a series of improvisations and released about a year ago (see Vital Weekly 838). He still uses that set-up and in the slipstream of his album, he also recorded a bunch of pieces which found their way on three lathe cut 7" records for such labels as Fake Jazz, Superior Standards and Champion Version. But you know, lathe doesn't equal high quality but it does equal very limited, so these pieces are now collected on this CD, along with two more pieces from another lathe cut and a compilation track. The dedicated fan has of course all of these, but the average fan now can hear them too. These nine pieces are all considerably short, somewhere between four and five-some minutes, which works quite well for what Machinefabriek wants. He wants to explore a few sounds, while being locked inside a system of sound effects, and create a small number of variations with these manipulations. The objective is as always to create abstract, atmospheric music, which is something Machinefabriek happens to be very good at. Occasionally there is an over-use of reverb, such as in 'Toendra', which is then relies too heavily on the use of it and becomes a gimmick, but in the majority of the other pieces it works quite well. 'Stroomtoon II' is an excellent companion to the 'Stroomtoon' album, and it's fine to see this updated version compared to the lathe cut versions. If you were looking for something radically new, then you won't find it here.
- Frans De Waard -