Press Review for Pete Swanson & Rene Hell « Waiting For The Ladies » LP
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Boomkat
*Limited new pressing made in an edition of just 500 copies* Waiting For The Ladies is a massively limited split LP from Yellow Swans’ Pete Swanson and darkened Kosmische operator Rene Hell, who each supply a side of new music. On Swanson’s side, rhythmic electronic signals clear the debris after a few introductory minutes of his signature noise-wash, cycling through nervous patterns of hum before the detritus starts to very incrementally build up again. It’s in these more methodical moments that you get to hear a side of the Yellow Swan that’s seldom made this explicit. Largely devoid of the fiery plumes of feedback that constitute so much of his discography, for some stretches, ‘Self Help’ captures Swanson in nurturing mode, coaxing the rhythmic qualities of his music to the forefront, eventually developing a kind of noisy, metronomic snare sound before the whole thing comes crashing down once again, this time under the weight of a flood of scourging drones. Finally, Swanson’s fizzy, electric pulse returns to usher out the side-long piece. On the flipside we find Rene Hell following up on the cosmic analogue excursions of his Porcelain Opera LP with a side full of hardware-driven synthetic vistas. Right up there with contemporaries like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never, Hell (real name Jeff Witscher) spends his side constructing the kind of intense, pastoral sci-fi sound worlds that could have been plucked from forty years in the past, or for that matter, forty years in the future. Amazing set – do not miss!
http://boomkat.com/vinyl/326748-pete-swanson-rene-hell-waiting-for-the-ladies
Mimaroglu Music Sales
january 2012 release ; … no, you’re not seeing double, this is an exact (and i do mean exact, right down to the pressing plant !!!) reissue of the august 2010 “tour split” lp from jeff “rene hell”witscher & pete swanson, offering a side of new music by each, never available in any other way …
pete storms the beaches first with a clattery, rising wall of rectified pulse-wave fizz & distantbanshee vocals, dropping out for several pregnant pauses of almost bbc radiophonic workshop-esque clatter shapes … the flip offers a trilogy of pieces from jeff ; the first recordedevidence of his recent stint in austria, subtexted “with a glass full of coke and the plastic sniper moon, bend the street taught and walk along in tune” … each is concerned with a correlatedaggregate of chiming, interlocking synth patterns, with a gnarly filtered square-wave “framing” the various arpeggiations into endlessly morphing emotive shapes …
a great record, largely unavailable in its original iteration (we definitely left a few of you hangingback then ; now’s your chance) … highly recommended !!!
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jeff witscher‘s followup to the acclaimed « porcelain opera » lp on type finds him taking things even further out from the kosmiche tag he’s had pushed on him. the rh side is way morecyberpunk meandering no logic digital music. hi-fi goaning landscapes. the pete swansonside is more synth and tape exploration that’s his most clean work to date. layers of primitive wave forms and gunked processing congeal into some sort of open 60s classical synth and shoegaze influenced song-like form. less oppression, more confusion.
http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/labels/shelter+press.html
hhv mag
A year and a half ago, Pete Swanson and Rene Hell went on a tour along the U.S.A.‘s west coast in order to promote their record Waiting For The Ladies. Swanson had manufactured only a small number of the record all by himself and then sold them at the gigs. Now, the newly founded label Shelter Press has re-released the split-LP – not without cause. On the record, each of the artists was responsible for one side, and each recorded it in their very own ways. As one half of the Yellow Swans, Swanson had already rid his Noise of its monotony. Jeff Witscher (aka Rene Hell) has for some time now been held as the guru of the synths-avant-garde by worming almost surreal sounds out of his equipment. On Bending (Voice), one of his three tracks on the B-side, it sounds as if Witscher crawled into his instrument, only to come back out of it after almost half of the ten minutes playing time with sheer beauty in his hands. Because Witscher is not only sound-explorer, but also an excellent composer, which was seldom as obvious as in this very track. All in all, on these three tracks, Witscher shows his versatility which plausibly combines baroque organ-sounds, playful chamber-music and heavy drones. Swanson, on the other hand, uses the whole of his 15 minutes for his track Self-Help. It starts with heavy guitar-noise, a ruckus, which becomes rhythmized by and by. Sounds are being peeled, swallowed, then peeled again, other sounds come and go, lisp, rattle, squeak, come back and are released back into the wild, eventually. Sometimes, this all sounds somewhat strange, but never threatening, because Pete Swanson always has everything under control. He’s tamed the sounds.
8/10
http://www.hhv-mag.com/en/review/1764/pete-swanson-rene-hell-waiting-for-the-ladies
OMG Vynil
Well, we better write this one up while it’s still in stock at Boomkat, even though it doesn’t technically have North American distribution yet. You may have heard, but the Yellow Swans are technically broken up now – so for that equal-parts-bliss-and-noise fix you’ve been craving you will have to look elsewhere. Solo material from Mr. Pete Swanson himself sure isn’t a bad place to start. These hyper-limited, self-released LPs aren’t bound to sit on stock shelves for long, so get while the getting is good. Oh, one of these is a split with Rene Hell, which is awesome. Get on it! Pick it up in Europe from boomkat.com or experimedia.net has a pre-order going for the yanks. Now available at mimaroglumusicsales.com (along with most of Pete’s solotapes…).
The Milk Factory
Originally self-released on a vinyl run of just 250 copies in 2010, this split album from Yellow Swan’s Pete Swanson and Rene Hell is getting a welcome re-issue, again for a very limited run (520 copies this time) on Brussels-based imprint Shelter Press. Composed of four tracks, three of which the work of kosmische purveyor Rene Hell (Jeffrey Witscher), the side-long fourth, which opens the proceedings here, from Swanson. After a first salvo of typically distorted noise through which his voice occasionally filters out, Swanson settles for a much quieter set of textures and cyclical patterns which slowly gains in granularity throughout the rest of its course, but steers clear of the dense clusters of feedback he often displays on his records. Whilst not essentially devised as a rhythmic piece, the permanent clatter which occupies much of the scope here, whether clearly out in the open or partially buried under swelling layers of noise, defines an element of groove which continues to change substance, consistency and pace until the very end of the piece. Over the course of its fifteen minutes, Self-Help never ceases to morph and continually shifts from harsh noise distortion to much smoother soundscapes and back, but remains intensely focused throughout.
Articulated around a central nine-and-a-half minute long piece, bookended with two much shorter compositions, the side occupied by Rene Hell (or Hl.) offers a sharp counterpoint to Swanson’s largely abrasive textures. Recalling some of the more atmospheric moments of his Porcelain Opera album, Witscher devises here three pastoral electronic pieces which all appear partly linked to each other, if only for their particular tonal quality. Walking In Tuneand Glass (Coke), the two shorter tracks, function around hectic shimmering arpeggios upon which are placed various textural components. Developing over a longer period, and going through a series of distinct phases, Bending (Voice) is a much more haunting piece, especially in its first section, where Witscher layers somber processed voices and gritty electronics. When he brings in a slow pulsating tone, these dissipate to reveal a much more streamlined synthetic core, but this continues to mutate as lighter, more fluid, textures and pulses emerge in the latter part.
Whilst in essence very different, Swanson’s epic composition and Witscher’s much more scaled down pieces work surprisingly well together, the latter three’s smooth finishing offering a contrasting flip side to the former’s inherent gritty aspect.
Dive Into Sun
Le label Belge Shelter Press anciennement Kaugummi Books frappe très fort pour sa première sortie. Il ne s’agit pas d’une nouveauté mais d’une réédition du vinyle autoproduit par Swanson qui était sorti en 2010 et vendu lors de la tournée conjointe des 2 artistes en Californie.
La face A est une unique piste électronique de 15 minutes constituée de drones et de rythmiques quasi métronomiques parfaitement maîtrisée par Pete Swanson . Sur la face B on retrouve 3 morceaux de René Hell dans la veine cosmique de son LP Porcelain Opéra. L’artwork du LP est réalisé par Rene Hell.
Le LP est dispo en 500 exemplaires, et vous pouvez le commander ici
Toutes les sorties du label seront à suivre de très près, et j’attends avec impatience la sortie du LP d’une de mes artistes préférée: Felicia Atkinson.
http://diveintosun.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/pete-swanson-rene-hell-waiting-for-the-ladies/
Pocket Welt
Cette réédition du split record que se partagent deux figures de la musique expérimentale marque la première sortie vinyle de Shelter Press, maison d’édition bruxelloise qui nous promet de belles sorties futures. Initialement paru en 2010, Waiting For The Ladies est un disque hétéroclite qui ravira les amateurs du genre, avec en face A un assaut sonore de la part de Pete Swanson (feu Yellow Swans) dont la voix se retrouve noyée dans une marée de bruit et en face B, l’électronique cosmique et éthérée de Rene Hell. Un split aux contours imprévisibles, comme on les aime.
http://www.pocketwelt.com/6604
Add Void
Pete Swanson & Rene Hell were strong contenders for our favourite electronic artists of 2011. The former’s incredible Man With Potential made sweet romance with the most abrasive palette possible, combining heavyweight industrial techno and penetrative electronic drones with a startling and quite unfathomable accessibility. The latter’s beautiful The Terminal Symphony was a magnum synth opus, veering from coruscating arpeggios to glittering dreamscapes into deep, soporific ecstasies. If you haven’t heard either of them yet just click on the links above to treat yourselves to a treacly teet of a treat.
However, if you’re already au fait with the men in question no such introduction will be necessary. Simply bask in the joy of the news concerning the re-release of their excellent split LP, Waiting For The Ladies, courtesy of the Brussels-based Shelter Press. Thanks guys. Great work.
http://addvoid.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/pete-swanson-rene-hell-waiting-for-the-ladies-2/
Linus Records
ベルギーの新興レーベルShelter Pressからリリースされた、Type、Root Strata、Three Lobeなどからリリースしているex-Yellow SwansのPete Swansonと、同じくTypeからアルバムをリリースしているJeffrey D. WitscherによるRene Hellの、廃盤だったスプリットアルバムが再リリース。元々はふたりの自主制作で2010年に限定250枚のLPでリリースされていましたが、この度Shelter Pressからめでたく再リリースされました。ちなみにRene HellはジャケットにはRene Hl.名義で名前が印刷されていますが、レーベルのサイトではRene Hellとされておりますので、それにあわせてわかりやすいように当店WEBの表記もRene Hell名義とさせていただきました。
Pete Swansonは荒れ狂うアグレッシヴなファズ・ノイズ〜歪んだギターのフィードバック・ノイズのドローンの濁流で空間を覆いつくす音圧の強いヘヴィーなノイズ・ドローンの展開と、音の強さは控えめながらも、物が擦れる音のようなアブストラクトなノイズ〜エレクトロニクス〜エフェクト音などの残骸が不規則に鳴らされる、アヴァンギャルドなリズミック・ノイズ〜インダストリアルなノイズサウンドの展開を15分以上に渡って繰り返す長尺のトラック「Self Help」1曲を収録。Rene Hellはサイケ〜スペーシーなアナログシンセの小刻みに反復するワンフレーズのループに、トリッキーに飛び交うエレクトロニクス〜エフェクト音や、緩やかな揺らめきのシンセのドローン〜加工してドローン調に引き延ばしたヴォイス・サンプルなどをレイヤードした、Emeralds〜Oneohtrix Point Neveなどにも通じるコズミックなエクペリメンタル〜アンビエント・トラックを3曲収録。両者の単独作のファンのかたはもちろん、Type、Arbor、Root Strata、Editions Mego、Digitalisなどのレーベルの作品のファンのかたにもオススメなスプリットLPです。520枚限定でのリリースです。
http://www.linusrecords.jp/products/detail/6043/
MNML SSGS
The Swanson track is in a similar vein to the « Man With Potential » release, while the synths of Rene Hell are much warmer and more inviting. I had a really beautiful moment the other night walking through the snow listening to the tracks from Hell. Strong release.
http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2012/01/listening-list.html
Warsawa
On Swanson‘s side, rhythmic electronic signals clear the debris after a few introductory minutes of his signature noise-wash, cycling through nervous patterns of hum before the detritus starts to very incrementally build up again. It’s in these more methodical moments that you get to hear a side of the Yellow Swan that’s seldom made this explicit. Largely devoid of the fiery plumes of feedback that constitute so much of his discography, for some stretches, ‘Self Help’ captures Swanson in nurturing mode, coaxing the rhythmic qualities of his music to the forefront, eventually developing a kind of noisy, metronomic snare sound before the whole thing comes crashing down once again, this time under the weight of a flood of scourging drones. Finally, Swanson’s fizzy, electric pulse returns to usher out the side-long piece.
On the flipside we find Rene Hell following up on the cosmic analogue excursions of his Porcelain Opera LP with a side full of hardware-driven synthetic vistas. Right up there with contemporaries like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never, Hell (real name Jeff Witscher) spends his side constructing the kind of intense, pastoral sci-fi sound worlds that could have been plucked from forty years in the past, or for that matter, forty years in the future.
http://www.warszawa.jp/store/?p=21382
The Drone
Shelter Press, c’est la toute nouvelle incarnation de Kaugummi Books, émanation small press basée à Bruxelles autrefois spécialisée dans les graphzines d’art et d’illustration qui accompagna largement l’explosion du dessin DIY français: un simple coup d’oeil à l’ancien catalogue vous mettra peut-être sur la voie de l’univers esthétique dont on parle, puisqu’on y retrouve nombre des collaborateurs habituels des indispensables Nazi Knife et Frédéric Magazine comme Frédéric Fleury, Andy Bolus ou Jonas Delaborde. Les habitués de ce singulier underground du dessin savent aussi les liens étroits que ses acteurs entretiennent souvent avec la musique, notamment les multiples avatars de la noise: de Hendrik Hegray (alias Popol Gluant, Helicoptère Sanglante etc.) à Dennis Typhus (Ultra Eczema), nombre de ces artistes sont également musiciens, et il n’est pas rare que les maisons d’éditions se muent en micro-labels spécialisés dans les disque-objets et les éditions limitées.
On est donc pas surpris d’apprendre que la deuxième publication de Shelter Press est un disque vinyle, et que le dit disque vinyle est le fait de deux brillants noisers en vogue: le perpétuellement surprenant Rene Hell, pourvoyeur un brin précieux de bonnes tranches de spleen trempé dans l’azote liquide sur Type, et l’excellent Pete Swanson de feu les Yellow Swans, auteur de l’un des disques post-technoïdes les plus chelous, les plus intenses et les plus longs en bouche de l’an passé. Intimes et rompus à l’exercice du split LP, les deux gars livrent des pièces respectives aux antipodes mais aussi remarquablement complémentaires: un gros lézard saturé et un rien tristoune pour Swanson, et trois machines synthétiques cristallines, à la fois tendres et flippantes pour Hell. On vous met le stream, mais on vous conseille bien sûr d’acheter l’objet sur le site de Shelter Press.
http://www.the-drone.com/magazine/pete-swanson-rene-hell-for-the-ladies/