Ulver – 1993-2003: 1st Decade In The Machines

The Jazzkammer and V/vm remixes are flippin wild. The heaviest tracks in existence!

ULVER open this album by remixing themselves. And if you thought you'd heard the outer edge of Drum 'n Bass, then this might make you rethink. While the 'tune' itself is probably unremarkable, the power behind it, pushing it towards the cacophonous excesses of Japanese Noise, borders the extreme, with all sounds pushed to a warehouse filling massive bulk. The central core rhythm paradiddles along to a SCORN-like loop, held suffocating beneath the Tar Pit suck of the gargantuan noise body.

RISHAUG's remix takes us into the realm of fragmented electronic shards, muted melodies of Ice Cream vans caught in a spider's web of time, hailing from misty, Jack The Ripper Victorian streets. This builds, not unlike MAIN circa "Dry Stone Feed", into a fuzzed-out tune forged from building block chunks of concrete grey material. All are distorted between gutted machine death cries and shrill dentist drill lathes.

INFORMATION sift the detritus of pitchless noise to form a complete contrast to their warm-yet-fragmentary deep-toned groove. The bass on this is something else, transmuting from DALIesque loops and curves to percussive stomps - leaving the reviewer unsure as to whether it's computer-formed or a rich and stylish amble up the (fretless?) fretboard. I guess, despite the languid grace of the piece, it's a kind of Lounge Jazz, but flings conventional genre to the wind. If PORTISHEAD were to hear this, they might re-emerge inspired.

THE THIRD EYE FOUNDATION follow so close on INFORMATION's footsteps, they might have to keep apologising for stepping on their heels. This remix harkens more towards the gentle grace of VIDNA OBMANA or ENO-like ambience. It's a graceful little jaunt through welcoming dreamland calm.

UPLAND throw a spanner into the works for those who may have been cloud-gathering to the previous remix. It's kind of like waking up in a running battle - trilling percussion coming at you from all directions makes you dive for cover. Having said which, it has an innovative quality of rhythmic composition - with the slowly pounding bass keeping the structure within tempo while the percussion strafes all directions.

RACZYNSKI blows the entire thing wide open with a busy madcap piece. Taking Drum 'n Bass as a leaping-off point, this track is in freefall within a tornado. It starts off benign enough, like some preset shop demonstration programme found on a keyboard set to maximum tempo, it has a bright, jolly sound which soon explodes in all manner of directions. When the hyper-driven drums kick in it sets course for the outer limits with a man at the controls. Probably the most 'musical' piece here, according to the complexity of the composition and the deft flourish of the actual playing.

HORNTVETH opens his piece with (presumably found) German spoken word against which an elegant if somewhat sad tune forms with heavy strings and a sluggish, heavy drum spine. The cello creates a rather wonderful little sequence which, if making the track compositionally a little predictable, takes nothing away from the atmosphere. While I couldn't understand a word which was spoken, the track communicated with me (although I'm not sure what!).

NEOTROPIC open their piece with a wonderland of electronic noises which suggest a faster pace than they actually deliver. When the rhythm kicks in it has a muscular girth to it - not unlike some of the better examples of Goth you might come across. DDL noises between the Rocks are set to a much more abrupt tempo than the main body, throwing promises of brisk exercises into the strolling pace.

A. WILTZIE vs. STARS OF THE LID return to the graceful atmosphere of MARTIN HORNTVETH's piece - opening to some delightful strings, then carrying the piece along on a sad atmosphere which nevertheless makes you want to shout joyfully with the beauty of the thing. When the keyboards take over, it reminds me of a much cleaner version of POPUL VUH's "Nosferatu" theme. When this finishes and leaves swelling keyboards towards the end, they employ some subtle vocal fx, either vocoded or through something like a Throat Tube (although it's a lot more subtle tham the latter). One of the highlights of this album.

FENNESZ bring us back down to terra firma with a return to the earlier scrap yard of sound fragments. These they blend into another graceful harmonic piece, although definition has here been blurred. There's little 'tune' here, although the atmosphere is rich, and there is a core structure to it, even if it is a little difficult to focus on it for long.

PITA follow in a similar style, although where FENNESZ tended towards a certain harmonic atmosphere, PITA's miasma of noise tends towards a resonant edge of metallic shimmer and shine. The bright, alive ambience sounds like a swimming pool filled with aliens listening to muted taped of Church Organ.

JAZZKAMMER reduces things to a suffocatingly low and muted hum before introducing an overdriven and much mutated take on so-called 'Power Electronics'. There's a certain sense of humour here - when the fists of white noise take a moment's break from punching you smack square in the senses, there's a brief respite in the form of a sampled loop of fay flute music. This is one of the shorter pieces here, and despite it's harsh, almost elemental quality, it has a wide variety of implements with which to torture you.

Thought JAZZKAMMER's punching your senses was harsh? They were wearing velvet gloves compared with V/VM. Cynical about the bible claiming that sound brought down the walls of Jerico? Try this against the walls of your own house at full volume. If the sonic blast doesn't knock the mortar out, then the Police turning up will certainly leave your front door in a sorry state. Between off-white episodes of explosion, there are less powerful moments when you feel they have a nice approach to experimentation.

Someone's making a din? Send for MERZBOW, who'll show 'em how to do it right. There's a nice koto sound held within the rich warp of this track, and it gains a ive melodic quality towards the end (although even 'melody' is a painful experience, when MERZBOW's at the controls). I guess MERZBOW is to noise what ELVIS was to Rock 'n Roll, and accepting that you'd expect this to be the best of the best. It's certainly a hell of a lot more interesting than most of the others in the field - a lot of variety within a clearly defined structure. It's still f**king loud. Nice ending though - GSOH.

It's difficult to tell where the original ends and the remix begins here, as I am unfamiliar with ULVER work. Although there are similar themes to various tracks, I'd still be hard pushed to guess what they'd sound like. Herein lies construction and destruction, harmony and cacophony, composition and decomposition - where's the common theme? So I hand this to you as a compilation, rather than a remix album. As such it is eclectic, with as much of one thing as another - beauty and ugliness go hand in hand here, as I feel they should in a balanced world. Who you are decides in which you perceive beauty, and which the lack of it.

Originally reviewed for Metamorphic Journeyman.