machinefabriek

[Nick Ink]

He does sound Dutch, but don't you detect a lot of Americanisms in there? Maybe it's lexis as much as pronunciation - it was just an impression really.

[LBx]

the Fabriek + Fabriek disc is 'the one' for me. love it.

[Nick Ink]

the Fabriek + Fabriek disc is 'the one' for me. love it.

That is indeed an excellent album! That almost Deaf Center-ish blend of chalky piano clusters and groaning cello scrapes.

[Nick Ink]

A very interesting interview with Rutger has just gone up over at the quite brilliant new experimental music site, The Liminal.

[edison]

Thanks! I used some birthday money to catch up with Machinefabriek's recent output, and am expecting a package containing four late 2010 releases any day now.

[Nick Ink]

Thanks! I used some birthday money to catch up with Machinefabriek's recent output, and am expecting a package containing four late 2010 releases any day now.

Oh, great - which ones did you go for|?

[edison]

The Hilary Jeffery tape, That It Stays Winter Forever, Duotoon, Halfslaap and Toendra (which will arrive at a later date).

[Nick Ink]

A couple of freebies - a recent live performance donated to Viral Radio (and accompanying interview, and a taster for a forthcoming soundtrack to a Makino Takashi film, Apollo.

[edison]

Thanks! I've been really liking my new purchases - finally listened to Halfslaap the way it was meant to last night (i.e., before/while falling asleep) and that was quite wonderful. That it Stays Winter Forever is also a killer - any recommendations of stuff from the two other artists? Duotoon is the only one I'm not really getting into, mainly due to the fact that it gives me weird headaches.

[Nick Ink]

I totally agree that those two tracks are fabulous. Just the right balance of drone, harmony and crackle. I like Duotoon too, but I can see that it might not be for everyone.

Frighteningly, I now have no fewer than 56 Machinefabriek 'albums' (plus 21 collaborations) on my hard drive - about a quarter obtained through conventional channels.

I don't know anything at all about Liondialer other than the fact, as lastfm informs me, that it is a collaboration between Greg Haines (who's done some good stuff - Slumber Tides and the recent Until The Point Of Hushed Support) and someone called Danny Saul.

As for Jan and Romke Kleefstra, they're involved in the Piipstjilling project with Zuyderfeldt, but I'm not quite so taken with that. Haines and Anne Bakker also collaborated on Machinefabriek's great Koploop track. There's also the Fabriek-Bakker-Fabriek album featuring the latter two plus Leo Fabriek, which is cool.

Sorry if I'm just repeating things you know, but that's all I've got on them!

[edison]

Ah, Greg Haines - I like both of his albums very much - makes sense that I'm also liking this Liondialer track. I should have read the credits on the CD, I guess.

Thanks for all the information! I gave a cursory, certainly overly inattentive listen to the latest Piipstjilling album, but that's all I've heard.

[Nick Ink]

I keep calling them Liontamer.

Only to myself of course. And not out loud. But still - Liontamer.

[Nick Ink]

 

[Daniel]

Nice!  Glisten was great.

[Nick Ink]

So, the above mentioned Patina is sounding great - only released on vinyl though.

It's been slightly eclipsed for me by the mysteriously lovely Bad Fortune release, my favourite of his 2011 stuff so far.

[Nick Ink]

I've been listening to a lot of Machinefabriek this week, initially because I was making those mixes, and then because I had a couple of days off work and not much else to do.

Anyway, I've sort of rediscovered a couple of older releases which I hadn't properly explored first time round, namely Zucht, Huis and Gris Gris.

[Nick Ink]

[milly balgeary]

I've been listening to a lot of Machinefabriek this week, initially because I was making those mixes, and then because I had a couple of days off work and not much else to do.

Anyway, I've sort of rediscovered a couple of older releases which I hadn't properly explored first time round, namely Zucht, Huis and Gris Gris.

nick, not to hate on those cats in lovable machinefabriek, but i kinda feel that a band that releases an album every other day is not spending the kind of time on each album/ep that is warranted. i mean i heard some, and it sounded like a buncha random blips and bloops. i don't have a problem with that, me personally, but i do want to throw that out there. don't you get a little afraid of the quality control going on here, with this stuff? i am asking because i am concerned you might be the victim of a long con.

[Nick Ink]

I've been listening to a lot of Machinefabriek this week, initially because I was making those mixes, and then because I had a couple of days off work and not much else to do.

Anyway, I've sort of rediscovered a couple of older releases which I hadn't properly explored first time round, namely Zucht, Huis and Gris Gris.

nick, not to hate on those cats in lovable machinefabriek, but i kinda feel that a band that releases an album every other day is not spending the kind of time on each album/ep that is warranted. i mean i heard some, and it sounded like a buncha random blips and bloops. i don't have a problem with that, me personally, but i do want to throw that out there. don't you get a little afraid of the quality control going on here, with this stuff? i am asking because i am concerned you might be the victim of a long con.

Well, I don't know. I mean, it's not a band, it's one man with a lot of time and equipment. I hear a lot of people say it's "random blips and bloops", but within the context of the scene, the music he puts out makes a lot of sense. I mean, there are reference points, influences and fellow travellers, much as there are in other genres, metal, hip-hop, whatever. I think the fact that the music's appeal is more to do with texture and tone than melody and tune is the reason why a lot of people find it inaccessible. But honestly, I think that accusations of randomness usually arise from a misunderstanding of that appeal, and that context.

As for quantity, I think some of his material is stronger than others, but, like a painter who churns out dozens of sketches and minor works for every masterpiece, the assorted single-track releases, collaborations and low-key experiments that punctuate his discography and are interspersed between the 'proper' albums are still really interesting to me. You know, I'm glad Henry Moore made all those gazillions of little miniature sculptures and pieces, and that he didn't just censor himself and only exhibit the bigger pieces, and I think it's the smae principle. And a lot of Machinefabriek's output is in the form of single, 20-minute long pieces, often on CDR. So, whereas it might seem like 15 separate releases over a year or three, it's kind of the equivalent of a single album for a rock band - in the sense that it's 10 or 15 ideas, 10 or 15 studio sessions, or whatever.

I guess you're joking about the 'long con' but serious about the impossibility of maintaining the same quality over 100 releases, and I doubt we disagree. According to lastfm, I've played Machinefabriek tracks nearly 3,000 times over the last 5 years, far more than any other artist, so if it is a con, I think I'm a helpless case! In the end, I, like you, am hardly an overexcited young teenager, obsessing over the latest pop fad. I arrived at an interest in experimental, electro-acoustic, ambient and drone music gradually and tentatively, at first finding it half-intriguing, half-appalling, but then gradually learning the language of it and falling more and more in love. It's really my only hobby, and I'm pretty secure in the fact that it's of value. At least to me as the listener, which is all that really matters.

I do know that my friends on this board are largely impervious to the charms of this music, and it's with a smile on my face that I dig up this thread to evangelise about the latest Dutch drone, but it's only done in the spirit of enthusiasm.

[milly balgeary]

i like it nick, i was just saying'.. if this was gonna require an intervention, i was ready with the water pistol and the hypnosis and the student films with jiggling breasts and coronas.

[milly balgeary]

course, we can still do those things.

[Nick Ink]

 

[milly balgeary]

that ain't me you hugging in that pic, dawn. that's elpollodiablo. and i think that motherfucker bites. hide your jug.

[ellaguru]

I've been liking Apollo and Livemaze as going to sleep music. The fans that keep me cool make irritating noise by themselves, but overpowering them with other music is too loud. But the Machinefabriek doesn't have to overpower the fan noise, it can just sort of intersect with it.

That Jazz Standards thing. It isn't really, like, jazz standards, is it?

[Nick Ink]

That Jazz Standards thing. It isn't really, like, jazz standards, is it?

I haven't heard that one yet. I suspect they're fairly loose interpretations, but then Gareth Davis is a horn-blower, so you never know.