KFAT016CD Proswell & wwcarpen

You may already know Proswell's "wicked and nostalgic 8-bit" albums on the American label Merck, or you may have heard his music featured during Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" bumps. He founded both the free mp3 label inpuj.net and audiowiki.com, a production technique/tutorials wiki.
wwcarpen is a man whose brain has systematic yet mythical processes running, and his imaginative music and artwork reflects this. He designed and printed the artwork for this release at his Baltimore gallery, Goodview. He has been very involved with kracfive and inpuj and goes also by the name of aghost.
The pair met through discussions of "pure data" and teamed up to build this refreshing collaborative album. Through nearly pure electronic means, they play with form and chaos in familiar & unfamiliar ways. Somehow they each present us with honest, thorough, synthesized imagination. Thanks guys, it is really good! They have something akin to each other's music.
From the lovingly designed artwork to the immaculately sculpted audio .wavs, this album is symbolic not only of the friendship between Proswell & wwcarpen, but the friendship between Proswell & wwcarpen & Kracfive.

[walter carpenter] also desgned the artwork which sort of reminds me of like, imagine if you cross an old skool egyptian pharaoh with that kid in your high skool math class who drew patterns on the graph paper instead of paying attention with some sort of self-aware computer with um, alright seriously, no more analogies, it's just trouble -- dailysonic.com

Encased in some of the most vivid and sickness-inducing artwork we've ever seen, this is the latest album from Merck's Proswell and Wwcarpen, although you wouldn't know it since there's actually no information whatsoever on the sleeve. Nothing, not a sausage, just a catalogue number and the label name. so it could really be anyone, I'm guessing it's Proswell and Wwcarpen since that's what comes up when I put the cd in the drive, but then again my computer could be lying - this could actually be Gloria Gaynor, it's probably not though. Yep from the sounds of it Proswell's signature choppy beats and fluctuating synthesizers (as heard on the fab 'Bruxist Frog') are still in check and are greeted by the shaking hand of Wwcarpen, a shadowy producer known for his contributions to Proswell's Inpuj netlabel. It's all electronica in the oldschool model with glitches aplenty and no-doubt hundreds of references to classic electro, but occasionally some real innovation shines out - for instance on the lo-fi 'Tinpail Patch' which sounds almost closest to Proswell's brilliant debut 'Konami' with its propulsive breakbeats and wobbly NES melodies. Elsewhere the final track '77' shows us what Autechre's LP 5 might have sounded like if composed entirely on a Gameboy - and it's very lovely if you ask me. -boomkat

Combination of 8-bit aesthetics and beautiful gloomy wide ambient layers in fusion with early Warp style beat is not the only characteristic that makes this release interesting. A way mentioned characteristic are melted into coexistence with loungy atmosphere and even confronted with glitchy crackling is a proof that it is really possible to ride the chaos while being relaxed and having a coffee. Even though one might get the impression that there are too many tracks here, the way they vary from each other is simply satisfying, even when banal merry melodies start after harsh ambiental vortex. Highly recommended to every one who does not like to dance and does like good music. (Š.T) - oscilator.net

I think both Proswell and Wwcarpen hail from Baltimore, but that's just the geographic location. Their first collaborative self-titled effort could've been made in just about any city on this planet as their idea of electronics is based on the primitive concept of what-came- before-must-be-good. In fact, even if they are re-hashing older ideas, they're still putting a fresh spin on them. Sure, some of this may sound like re-processed Autechre or even [dare I say] 808 State, but that's not the point. It's the presentation and pasting of ideas that makes all the difference in the world. Tons of glitch sounds, obscure samples, riveting break-neck d'n'b loops, synths galore and a wad of percussive elements ensure the listener is both taken aback and satisfied. The bass elements on "Poorly" tend to evoke memories of an Earth Wind & Fire track [though I can't recall, whether it's "Fantasy" or "Happy Feeling" or maybe it's just "Can't Hide Love"]. But wait, there's more in store. Groovy bird samples, cheap drum machines, synths that fly over your head like some sort of a supersonic jet fighter and all this in a span of just under an hour. If you're ready to receive, and keep your ears truly open, it's all here for the taking. Wherever they may be from, Proswell & Wwcarpen are the dope- maniacs and just outright schizos of the electronics scene. - gaz-eta.vivo.pl

Artists such as Original Instrument, Kettel and Colongib & Octopus Inc have released their material on the Pittsburgh, PA-based label Kracfive Records in the past. Now it's time for the duo Proswell & Wwcarpen to show their capacities.
This first coopeation between the artist known from his Merck releases and the musician/designer who is alo known as Aghost is electronic in general. Playful melodies, created by means of relatively high-pitched tunes are the basic elements of their music. Especially the first half of the album are full of bits and bites; tiny sound snippets put into melodic sequences, sometimes returning to Krafwerkian atmospheres.
At the end things get slightly more elementary and more sombre. The 16th track even can be considered a soundscape.
This album consists of individually nice tracks, but as a total (after giving it a complete listening) it is slightly missing a personal touch. - phosphor nl

KFAT014CD/12" Kettel : Look At This! ha ha ha! (CD and 12")

The noble REIMER EISING returns for his second outing on KRACFIVE, again enlisting his loyal gnome-choir to sing and play synthesizers for his catchy melodic folksongs. They've learned a lot and can really groove! Similar to his Plaid-influenced debut LP "DREIM", "LOOK AT THIS" is heavily melodic and equally satisfying, but catchier and further developed. "LOOK AT THIS" calls into mind rolling hills of Netherlands campgrounds, flying catbirds, and gnome hideouts. Following releases on Holland's DUB and England's Neo Ouija and Planet Mu, as well as the collaboration album "ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT" with Colongib and Octopus Inc and Miragliuolo, this collection of songs recorded between 2001 and 1999 is Kettel's most upbeat and uplifting release yet.

Madness on the inside cover, take a look when you see this cd.
"Reim doesn't" kicks it right off with a super disorto cloud ghost voice bellowing down from above, with an evil call, but then it all rolls into a developing melody which is full of life. Lots of different clicky frog voices call out from the smog as the organic steam generating train rolls across the mushroom landscape at a chilled out speed. Slight electroid elements overpower the characters at points with a deep church bell tone, that breaks through the air like a sharp razor through a tiny planet. Dont forget your earmuffs. Toons everywhere.
Ahhhh yeh, this is the life, sitting by a lovely pond danglign my feet in the cool water as the sun beats down on me and the birds whistle an exclusive tune for my ears, "Twinkle Twinkle that is you" is all good. The rainbow beam melody warms up everything in its gaze and reminds you that there is more to life than working in a brainfactory. The deep plodding bassline and snare like drum hits, keep it all well in check and somehow make this track even better, Quality on a stick.
"Bird-covered lungs" for dinner.....hmmm... maybe yeh. This journey is a very slow paced audio feed from a dark forest at night, twigs snap and items are rustled, and the vibrating tune hugging the sky scraping trees, makes it just that bit friendly so you dont get to scared. Cool.
"Guru lost riddle" sees you stumbling into a processing droids xmas party, as it all goes mentalist. Look around, as babbling droids wobble and spit out random garble, and one loon smashes his pan shaped head on the nearest super computer to keep the beat. It all goes up in pace as you attempt to join in , but are flung to the side by the swinging aluminium arms of professor 7DER2H. They got the right to partay, and so have you. Drop the bass.
"Hero max" is futuroscopeelectronics flying along a mainframe as fast as the little blighters digits can carry it. Jump the trap, and spin and clap in mid air, its time to run and its time to run in style. Happy fast paced full of character and stuffed with energy. You just try to keep up, this track removes your hindsight and sticks it to your face three frames ahead of where you already are, its all crazied up. Imagine, just imagine. Use your ears and tune in.
I am really loving this release. Three, two, one, go get it, (or I will take away your pass to the cyborg disco). You know it makes sense.
Quality. - Tesselate UK

kettel: look at this! ha! ha! ha! (kracfive)
like a part folk-infused plaid, this little gem of a mini album opens with the wonderfully immersible 'reim doesn't'. recalling the ease and compositional fluidity of artists like 'realistic', kettel creates an organic and enveloping sound around the listener. follower 'twinkle twinkle that is you' is woven with lovingly crafted piano sequences (far more subtle than anything on 'drukqs') and kicking back to a bit of kettel really does seem to put the world to rights.
track three 'give apple to' unfortunately falls from grace with a slightly repetitive core sample, but this is about as bad as it gets here. tracks of the (mini) album are six and seven, the final two here - 'philliphill timee' (six) really lifts with it's (almost chipmunkesque) choral patterns, and to be honest i initially had this pencilled as track of the album. but finale 'hero max' is a corker ö and probably the most dynamic piece on the cd with its purposely aimless lead synth and bassline working against each other beautifully. it recalls some of the more succesfully early black dog pieces like cost and cost ii, and if i were to give you a pointer for kettel's style i'd say between plaid and max tundra.
this is something of a rarity for me nowadays - a cd in my review package that i'm going back to time and again. more please! - absorb.org

KETTEL - LOOK AT THIS! HA HA HA! (CD by Kracfive) Here's a release I have for quite some time now, but didn't manage to review it earlier. It's a longer EP (25 minutes) by Kettel, one of my favourite of the new melodic (idm) artists, and by now a favourite to many like-minded people around the would. Even when Kettel (aka Reimer Eising) is obviously inspired by the global idm scene, it's certainly fair to say that there are much more things and diversity in his music, at least what I've heard so far. It varies from one to other track, so you couldn't guess what's the next surprise. I figured out there can be quite a lot of jazz in Kettel's music, just hear the track 'Any waken sly blonda' from the EP 'Cuddle and then leave' released by Dub. That electronic jazzy feel is present on the 'Look at this! ha ha ha!' EP too, though not to that extent and with same intensity as in the track I mentioned before. What Kettel does and it distincts him from many of the artists on that scene is not trying to be precise in the melodies, as Novel 23 is for example, but he rather improvises with the melodies, mixing sounds, beats, field recordings etc. and playing with the sounds and with those various sound sources as with instruments. And he's quite good in that. As a result of that is the absence of classic stand-out tracks, which you can't really find on this release (although it comes close in tracks 2, 6 and 7), but instead there's an ongoing shifting atmosphere. Sometimes more absent, other times more concentrated, as in the nice track 'Twinkle twinkle that is you'. Mixed up melodies, coming from the idm jam sessions in Kettel's means, where often sudden and unexpected joyful things surprisingly show up, as in 'Philiphill timee'. (BR) - Boban Ristevski from Vital

Like many other tiny electronic labels, Kracfive has been putting out some seriously quality music over the years. Reimer Eising is the real name of the fellow behind Kettel, and if anything can be ascertained by looking at the cover of his newest EP, he's very excited about something. In addition to an exclamation point following the name of the release, one follows his name along with every single person he thanks on the back of the disc. Musically, things follow suit as well, with happy and playful electronic music that drops all pretension and rolls.
That's not to say that the release is up-all-night rave sounds or something like that, but it definitely has a somewhat silly side that shines through. After some opening squelches, "Reim Doesn't" lurches along with a juicy beat and some filtered vocal samples that sound like they were bounced off twisted wax. "Twinkle Twinkle That Is You" follows a looped piano melody and warm pads and guitars down the Morr Music path, sounding like a warm spring day while "Phillphill time" splutters and squirts like a my first Sony hopped up on goofballs.
There's even one quiet moment in the midst of everything, and "Bird-Covered Lungs" makes you feel like you're sitting on the playground with Boards Of Canada. Basically, imagine if you tossed a smidge of about 10 different artists (including Plaid) into a pot and topped it off with a dash of spastic. While it's not the most original-sounding disc out there, it's a quick blast of fun if you like the aforementioned artists. - almostcool.org

KETTEL - LOOK AT THIS! HECTAR HECTAR HECTAR! [ KRACFIVE/14 - IMPORT ] Kettel tapes at present all channels, so also here Kracfive from the states. First everything is much sweet and spleenig and schnuppsig yellow, evenly as in Holland the courses by the area drives. But that, we naturally already imagined sowas, is only the half truth, or differently said: The Mr. Kettel turns then sharply and is pleased about the fact that the Happy Hardcore Rummel comes into the city and does not leave itself also to rags in the Country harmonica competition to then participate and itself in the hectic Gabba a anzutrinken. Brake, Sweetness on. Then again. Suddenly classically and nevertheless always a little rotated, dreamed playing, perfectly evenly, as we about Kettel not differently. -Debug German magazine, translated by babelfish. original here and here:

KETTEL - LOOK AT THIS! HA HA HA! [KRACFIVE/14 - IMPORT] Kettel bespielt zur Zeit ja alle Kanäle, so auch hier Kracfive aus den Staaten. Zunächst ist alles sehr sweet und spleenig und schnuppsig gelb, eben so wie in Holland die Züge durch die Gegend fahren. Doch das, wir dachten uns sowas natürlich schon, ist nur die halbe Wahrheit, oder anders gesagt: Der Herr Kettel biegt dann scharf ab und freut sich darüber, dass der Happy-Hardcore-Rummel in die Stadt kommt und lässt sich dann auch nicht lumpen am Country-Mundharmonika-Wettbewerb teilzunehmen und sich im hektischen Gabba einen anzutrinken. Bremse, Sweetness an. Dann wieder. Plötzlich klassisch und doch immer ein bisschen verdreht, verträumt spielend, perfekt eben, wie wir das von Kettel nicht anders kennen. www.kracfive.com/ THADDI

KFAT012CD/12" Colongib & Octopus Inc EP (CD and 12")

Having been worked on over a period of years, it is good news for Kracfive fans that this self-titled collaboration between Christopher "Colongib" Graves and Noah "Octopus Inc" Sasso has finally seen the light of day. Meeting Graves' love of darker sounds from decaying, rusting machines with Sasso's affinity for processing samples and collages of acoustic instruments, there is tight work to be found in the squeaky, playful string groove of tracks such as "Lo Neolin" and "Mecha Bonus." Distant melodic fragments echo comfortably underneath a hazy, melodic snare drum line in "Pair Up + Board," while the best work on the release is in the disjointed layering of dissonant, breathy flute in "Drinking a Real Egg," somehow managing to reach a Ligeti-like, mushroom-flavored euphoric high that works well when played as loud as legally possible. "Conc Rmx" closes the disc with scratchy reversed samples and distorted, delayed signals, wrapped into a rhythmic patter. This matchup of talent is pretty damn solid, and for all the fans out there, Kracfive has added several disc-only goodies for your computer: two music videos, a Flash-based pattern sequencer with artist samples built-in, as well as MP3 music files of the CD audio. - Alex Reynolds in Grooves Magazine #12

Touches all the ground from noise to sampledelica to ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT, their most recent collaboration with KETTEL and MIRAGLIUOLO While Original Instrument used only the human voice as a sound source, this new release finds CHRIS & NOAH on familiar ground, where everything and anything is available as an instrument including Japanese GAGAKU, violins, and a bulldozer graveyard. This is 'electronic' music about metal and dust, gritty and dreamy, as listenable as MATMOS or BOARDS OF CANADA, always balancing between chaos and the songs and the beats .... and the notes. CD version comes with enhanced data track with music videos, KRACFIVE sequencer, mp3's.

COLONGIB & OCTOPUS INC (EP by Kracfive) Colongib and Octopus Inc are 2 people from Kracfive Records and this EP is released by both Kracfive (USA east coast) and Obtain Freedom (a small label from Japan). Octopus Inc is Noah Sasso, he has a great mp3-EP Subcon Sound Museum @ Notype.com, and Colongib is Chris Graves. This new untitled (or self-titled) EP has 8 collaborative tracks and the CD version features some additional data: videos, photos, stickers..., and Mack-O-Chalk - nicely designed and entertaining toy (Kracfive sequencer) for making noises using sounds like those in the music composed/improvised by Colongib & Octopus Inc. Their tracks have really strong pop sense but they are never with a concrete melody or rhythm. They are rather experiments wrapped in a poppy cover. This music deserves carefull and close listening, there are many details inside (Chris and Noah, like Matmos, use lots of real sounds) and it doesn't work well as background music 'cause that way you're missing too much. You should listen close to discover very nice sounds on this successful release and it's sampledelic kracphibian ethic. (BR) - Vital. from http://www.staalplaat.com/vital_archive/401.txt

From an originally electronic approach the pair American develops fragmenting sound from the meticulous use of not conventional instruments. A not accidental search that lambisce the psichedelici territories of the last Boards Of Canada, joined to tribali and metallic percussions that recall music small openings post-manufacturer. Of recent Colongib & Octopus Inc. with to Kettel they have collaborated to the plan Original Instrument having deepened the use of the human voice like sonorous source. To hold of eye. - Salvo Pinzone - Blow Up (machine-translated from Italian to English)

KFAT010CD Octopus Inc : Fluid Freedom CD

Noah Sasso further builds his style with his second Octopus Inc full-length for Kracfive. Since his works throughout the nineties as Pacman, Noah has developed with the mind of the mighty octopus a beautiful blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation, where through clever sound design and processing one can't be distinguished from the other. Love of detail doesn't stop at the sonic design stage however; here the sounds are arranged into full things. Songwise the music is melodic as always and purposeful, with good use of space. Here it's playtime, there a changing move to groove to, a bit of fun, and up over here a violent spasm. Where previous album 'Mere things..' stepped comfortably through genres of electronic music of the past & future, Fluid Freedom moves into styles that haven't even been discovered, accompanying pioneers such as Zammuto, We, Matmos, and Bisk.

Fluid Freedom is Noah Sasso's second release under the Octopus Inc. name. [Noah] combines acoustic and electronic instrumentation to make this journey very mellow, and very sweet. The pace remains slow, as if the release of Fluid Freedom indicated a slowdown from summer laziness to fall prep-for-hibernation. [He] occasionally slips in hip-hop loops, but the whole picture is more downtempo reminiscent. The record isn't amazingly innovative, but it's certainly a nice venture into slow rhythms and summer afternoon pleasantness. Fluid Freedom is for fans of the Leaf label, and those who like the nu-jazz atmosphere without the fusion posturing. - Nirav Soni - Ink 19

KFAT009CD Original Instrument CD

Early history is really quite vague; we don’t know much of how early humans lived or what they accomplished, thought, or made. However, there are some relatively decent speculations about the latter. From our limited accounts, it seems obvious that our early ancestors used an oral tradition to pass on ideas and history. Spoken language, rather than written language, was most likely the primary means of communication, and it follows that some of the primary forms of expression were most likely vocal as well. Even after written languages were developed, the voice remained a pivotal part of expression. In terms of lingual evolution, organized grunts, tribal chants, and religious hymns all exemplify this. Now, time has passed again, and humanity is situated within a period of integrating technology with all forms of life. Be it genetic alteration or artistic expression, scientific advancements allow humanity to potentially reinvent itself in new and intriguing ways.
Reinvention is exactly what Original Instrument does with their self-titled album – reinventing language, creating a new way of speaking, of transferring ideas and emotions. Unlike traditional forms of verbal expression, Original Instrument doesn’t just sing lyrics and essentially tell you what the song is about, nor do they play conventional or electronic instruments to evoke some sort of theme or mood. Instead, they take man’s “original instrument” - his voice - cut it apart and distort it using computerized tools, then suture the fragments back together into something foreign yet familiar, traditional but refreshingly new and meaningful. Much like learning a new language, one can come to understand what a song is about based upon studying the inflection, the tone, and the style of the patterns used.
At times, the album feels like it was conceived and made in the tower of Babel, with the multitude of disembodied voices coalescing in each song. With dozens of different vocal cuts in each track, it very well could be the mystical spire, complete with indecipherable languages. Yet, it is never as overwhelming as one would expect; the majority of songs, while experimental, are nevertheless comprehensible and intuitive.
The album opens with the chronic stuttering of “Bop Me.” Multiple layers of what sounds like a young boy’s voice are ripped apart and subsequently reborn into a variety of different patterns. These range from an ultra-repetitive loop of humming to a truly improvised, random hip-hop performance. “Sion” is dark and murky, with the melange of voices sounding as if recorded in an underwater submarine. A deep, gurgling vociferation dominates the background, while snips of a sultry female voice haunt the upper layer. This certainly isn’t trip-hop, however. The track features no discernable beat, nor does it take its vocal cues from Portishead or Scala. Obviously catering to a darker emotion, the track exudes a romantic, Byron-esque quality – the individual who enjoys the song would find meaning in isolation and a fixation upon self-imposed misery.
“Birds for Beginners” is the first track to bring in more traditional electronic sounds, and as a result, is one of the weaker, more predictable tracks on the album. A fast-paced, but distant sounding rhythm is followed shortly by a distorted man’s voice. On top of it all, there’s vocoded vocals and distorted crow cawing. Essentially, this all adds up to a track that’s not as challenging as others on the album; instead, it’s an experiment in how much cacophony one can tolerate.
About two-thirds through the album, one begins to notice the record’s single fault – it lacks a certain personal appeal on several tracks, such as the innocuous “Rosetta” or simplistic “Conversong.” While most contemporary composers are content to bring in melody or an established guitar chord to evoke some feeling or emotion, Original Instrument doesn’t really have that option. As a result, the slightly distant feeling should be expected, and is essentially acceptable – this is not an album centered on emotions, but ideas. It’s an album for those willing to challenge their conceptions of what music can not only be comprised of, but also what the human voice is capable of. Bodiless, soulful female vocals are the first of what “Heavens to Betsy” offers, with the composite voices stuck on repeat while a compressed version of them gets spit in various directions in the background. Gradually, some synthesizer sounds are brought in, but this time to a much more rewarding end than “Birds for Beginners.” Instead of adding to an existing mess, the synth adheres to the vocals and lets its sad harmony work around them, while more distorted voice clips are thrown in for good measure. One gets the impression of tiredly sitting in a late-night club, where some diva sings to your miserable body, but the voice can only be found emanating from the club’s radio speakers.
As one would expect, “Coughing” is based upon samples of the same-named respiratory reaction. Deriving the beat solely from the function makes the song initially unique. Original Instrument goes on to add some deep, male vocal samples that are, of course, unintelligible. It’s like an illiterate Tricky trying to sound out words he’s heard from somewhere. Like “Heavens to Betsy,” the elements of the track come together to create a stronger experience. The song captures the frustrations as well as the odd physical exertion of a chronic cough.
You can’t really compare this to “alternative” hip-hop creators like Prefuse 73 or Machine Drum, nor musical/vocal collage makers, for what Original Instrument does is essentially unique. The closest thing that comes to what the album aesthetic embodies is Autechre’s “ccec,” from EP7. Even in this, though, the comparison doesn’t really work. With “ccec,” Autechre used chopped-up voice as an element of a larger context, whereas Original Instrument makes it the context. Ultimately, with this album, Original Instrument essentially creates an entirely new genre in electronic music, one that has been only briefly considered by predecessors. The voice has always been an integral element of music, but rarely the only element, and never in a way such as this. - Robert Stanton - http://www.electronicmusicreviews.com/

Consisting of all four founding members of the Kracfive label, their approach is slightly more extreme. The sounds on this album are comprised 100% of human vocals. The name suggests a back-to-basics approach, a return to bare fundamentals, but don't be fooled. Original Instrument isn't really about the human voice, but rather those processes used to chop it up, distort, maim and manipulate it. Provided you believe the label's claim that the sounds on this album are 100% processed human vocals, then indeed Original Instrument stands less as an ode to the glory of the human voice than it does to the power of computers to manipulate sound.
Does the process outshine the art? Does the music get lost in the shadow of the gimmick? The answer, surprising and pleasing, is 'not in the least.' Original Instrument is damned entertaining from start to finish, really a fine piece of electronic music, even if it does happen to fit in the oft-maligned category of 'concept album.' There's no denying the work that went into Original Instrument. The care with which these samples have been chopped up, fucked up, pitch-shifted and arranged into something undeniably melodic and rhythmic, yet not obviously vocal-based, is prodigious. These guys have taken something simple and made a pretty stunning array of beats, drones, pops, clicks, tweets, and all kinds of weird noises from the most literal of organic sources.
Granted, tracks like "Bop Me" and "Nake" take the obvious approach; funny noises, hung loosely from a beat or a rhythm. Anyone whose ever spent time fucking with digital audio tracks has heard these sorts of sounds before; that vaguely robotic effect that results from stretching out or looping a very small chunk of audio. "Coughio" builds beats out of fragments and arranged samples of, well, coughs. Even Ferris Bueller could do that. Tracks like these are fun the first couple times around, but admittedly, they lose a lot of their gusto by the fifth listen.
Other tracks are more ambitious. "Conversong" is an ambient track that sees the masterminds piling a few looped vowels atop one another, stretching them out over five minutes, and shifting each of their pitches gradually in different directions. "Heavens to Betsy" is Original Instrument's take on an R&B groove. They layer Cuisinarted vocals around a looped sample of a female R&B singer, and damn if it doesn't sound soulful and sexy, even if the backup singers' oohs and ahhs end up getting stretched out, hacked to slivers and spattered about, like the aural equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting.
Original Instrument is, without a doubt, a one-trick pony. But the trick is a pretty good one. And the guys running the show are versatile enough to keep it interesting, jumping from beat-driven to ambient, from soulful to abstract and back again, all without ever sounding too scatterbrained. Original Instrument maintains a strong sense of balance throughout, always sensing just when you're about to get bored with their toys, always showing up with something new to recapture your attention just at the right moment. Original Instrument won't solve your problems, find you a job, reunite your long-estranged family or any of that. But, there's no denying that it's kinda fun. And sometimes that's all that's necessary.
-David M. Pecoraro, April 25, 2002 in Pitchfork

Real Groove magazine in New Zealand:
The ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT (Kracfive) is also an object of genuine achievement and creativity (not to mention what must have constituted painfully time-consuming graft). A collaboration by underground American electronic fellows Joe Miragliouolo, Ketteldrums Reim, Octopi Noah 21 and Chris Graves (aka Colongib), its an astonishing album that features nothing but the human voice (and the skill and software to endlessly process it into intriguing new shapes). What could have easily ended going up the bumholes of its creators is actually a genuinely gripping, gratifying experience, and I suspect that¹s because the human voice is intrinsically naked, and nakedness tends to produce honesty and doses of humour in smart monkeys. So while an intense degree of serious discipline was required to shape these sounds, it¹s anything but a dry, academic exercise: for instance Birds For Beginners has what sounds like a looped rhythmic sex sigh, screeching parrot and streetcorner doowop imitations, and a lyric about not taking shit from beggars in the street! Add to that a "lyric sheet" which transcribes the sounds phonetically, and a general sense of fun and discovery, and we end up with a thoroughly entertaining diversion. An essay could probably be written about every piece, but this is one intelligent innovation that¹s even more fun to listen to than analyse.

Original Instrument is a group that consists of the kids who run the Kracfive label, originally from Hollis, N.H., but now based in Pittsburgh. This is an amazing disc, built upon nothing but the recorded voice. Track eight, "Happy We Do" is reminiscent of minimalist Steve Reich's early exploration with tape loops. This also reminds me of German experimental supergroup Stock, Hausen and Walkman in the way sounds dance around, come out of nowhere and are built upon one another to make a composition. Of course, Original Instrument is not improvised - it is well thought out, brilliantly executed and is a winner from start to finish. G.A. - PSU http://www.dailyvanguard.com/

Kracfive is a label as well as sort of a collective of four different fellows who go under different pseudonyms and have released 10 different offerings on their label over the course of the past couple years. Recording under different names (Colongib, Octopus Inc, Kettel, and Miragliuolo), the group also came together for a group effort called Penguin Mechanics in which the only rule was that the music had to be constructed from sounds of machines. The same four fellows are now back again under the guise of Original Instrument, and this time the rule that they laid down for themselves is that the only sound source they could use for the recording is the human voice. Although far from a completely original concept (beat-boxers have been doing it for decades, and people like Bobby McFerrin have scored top 10 singles with the process), the arena has been completely blown open with digital technology, and that's exactly what Original Instrument exploits. Although most of the time the samples used are recognizable as voices, they've been chopped, cut-up, and distorted so much they're turned into something quite different. Although the majority of the album falls into sort of a bizarre, netherworld of glitchy IDM (that sounds almost surreally organic), the collective also explores lots of other areas as well. After starting out the album with the fun, skittering vocal bit-cuts and chunky beat of "Bop Me," they drop the cut-up hip-hop sounds of "Lum Club." They even explore more stretched-out, droning tracks with "Sion" and the super creepy "Conversong" (in which vocals are slowed down so much that they're turned into a creepy funhouse moan). Of course, offsetting those darker sounding tracks are ones like "Birds For Beginners," in which the group creates a goofy chorus of "oohs" and "ahs" that sounds like the reincarnation of "Yello" before they drop some bizarre, almost vocodored vocals, making it one of the most pop sounding tracks on the release (if that's even possible). On "Coughio" they even turn (as you could expect from the title) a series of coughs and sneezes into something quite hilarious. Being the pranksters that they seem to be, the group even includes "lyrics" to all the tracks on the disc, which sometimes consist of the following example, "aa aa mmm neee this is isis." It's like they transcripted the tracks phonetically, skips, glitches and all, reminding me of a silly game I used to play with my roomate in college called "techno karoake" in which we'd basically recreate our favorite dance tracks with vocal oddities. In the end, it doesn't have quite the repeated listening power of something like Matmos' A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure, but it's still a fun release, and something you should check out if you're interested in novel concepts in electronic music. - http://www.almostcool.org/mr/o/o18mu.html

This album sees Colongib, Miragliuolo, Octopus Inc, and Kettel collaborating with all sound sources being human vocals. Constructicons use a wide range of real human instruments, the result being funky, unexpected, surreal, sexy, "emotional", dynamic. What a load of fun these guys have! Real songs! Human emotion! Human voices! They must be crazy to imagine such songs as these! The beginning and end of music at the same time? Vocal cutups and distortions are taken to extremes - not woven in, they are the music. It will be a marvelous, completed album with the pointed upward precision the Scherapparates arrange of the blow of the axe the voices to bring around the Vergngen and make you suprised.

There are two reasons why this is an usual review for me. Firstly, I'm writing about a band that I never heard before I had the album in my hand. In fact, if my editor had not shoved this disc onto my lap, I never would have heard about them. That would be an unfortunate happening. Secondly, I'm writing a positive review. Ten years ago, Aphex Twin's genre defining landmark, Selected Ambient Works, kicked off an electro-craze. Inspired by its initial release, thousands of college bound kids with their Powerbook graduation gifts started twiddling with virtual synthesizer and filter programs, emulating the sonic college atmospherics that appear on the disc. Enthusiastic about their more active role, these collectives formed to exchange selected works and speculate about how they would start a label and mass produce their more successful results. Kracfive is one of these said collectives that actually came together as a label.
With nine discs in their catalog, Original Instrument is the latest collaboration between the Kracfive members, but unlike their previous releases, the self-titled disc employs only vocal samples to construct songs. Much like the technique operating on Prefuse 73's Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, Original Instrument manipulates vocal utterances but instead of an urban emcee sound, Original Instrument reshape vocals to create more of a Planet Mu drill 'n' bass sound (actually it sounds like the infectious opening track of Mouse on Mars' Idiology). Ultimately, this electro-scat record, while not mind-blowingly revolutionary, is a strong performance in a still-budding genre. -The Daily Californian www.dailycal.org Feb 22 2002

The underground label, Kracfive, from Hollis New Hampshire tries succesfully to rehabilitize the human voice. Original Instrument is a quartet including Reimer Eiseng aka Kettel, Chris Graves aka Colongib, Noah Sasso aka Octopus Inc and Joe Miragliuolo. Unlike Penguin Mechanics, which was made of 100% machine sounds, the Kracfivers decided to make an album that was made out of 1 soundsource: the human voice. The endless posibilities of voice and spoken word are extended with the help of computers and electronica. Gutturals, nasals, onomatopies (etc.) are being stretched, compressed, cut up, used as rhythmbox, and so on. The result sounds superweird, pretty nice fucked up, poetical, sometimes confusing and very very dynamic. In Sion we hear a low pitched man's voice having a fight with a rapping female voice. In the funny and sexy Birds for Beginners the terms cutup and a capella get an entire new interpretation. The most 'normal' track of the album is Heavens to Betsy. A bizarre syllable-rap coming close to a 'real' technotrack. - urbanmag.be translated by Reimer

an album made up exclusively of vocal sounds, processed and stuttered and otherwise mutated into something else entirely. sure it's been done before, most notably todd rundgren and art of noise. but this is new, different, and really strange. - songsofpraise.fr

Kracfive is a collective of avantgarde musicians based in New Hampshire. Founded in 1998, the collective's members are Joe Miragliuolo, Christopher Graves, Reimer Eiseng, who has released Dreim (Kracfive, 2001) under the moniker Kettel, and Noah Sasso, who is also active as Pacman (his cassettes have been compiled on the double CD This Is The End) and Octopus Inc, the latter having released two albums, Mere Things & Mindless Creatures (Kracfive, 1999) and Fluid Freedom (Kracfive, 2001). Original Instrument is a collaboration among all four of the members. Their debut album, Original Instrument (Kracfive, 2002), is a series of electronic/digital manipulations of the human voice in the tradition of Joan LaBarbara and Diamanda Galas. Vocal snippets are vivisected, looped, altered, overdubbed. Coupled with massive distortions and spun around percussive noises, they become collages reminescent of Oval's glitch-music but with a stronger rhythmic element (Bop Me, Nake). They evoke hip-hop edonism (Lum Club and Birds for Beginners), haunting psychedelia (Sion), the desperate wailing of Diamanda Galas (Rosetta), Sixties pop novelties (Happy We Do). http://www.scaruffi.com/vol7/original.html

KFAT008CD Colongib & Christopher Graves : Special Rumble CD

Colongib/Chris Graves' third solo full-length on his Pittsburgh-based Kracfive Records is an organic, sloppy, schizophrenic, sometimes-fun, sometimes-melancholic mess strewn throughout with mutated beats, textures, and melodies. And that's a good thing, by the way. Soundscapes like the Simon Pyke-ish opener "Fea Needs Fixing" fold analog farting within a darker, eerier bleepy rhythm, while the repetition of what sounds like the noise of a decaying refrigerator condenser is gradually melded in and faded out, transitioning to the brooding, hypnotic ambience of dying machines in "Scotch and the Transparent Anatomy," a work most closely resembling a quieter version of Aphex Twin's "28 mix" -- a lumbering monster of a piece. Other choice moments include the funk-filled, swinging, smoky piano-and-bass meanderings of "True," with its dirty, off-balance feel, and the excellent, upbeat closer "Music from a Broken Conch Shell," where rusted doors are opened to the modulated whispering and ethereal keyboard arrangements set atop a clanking, thumping beat of leaky steam pipes, strings, and crunchy noise beats. Like the Tpolm and Graves' artwork that complements the release, which displays rusted machines in the process of being devoured slowly and steadily by the creeping progress of moss and vegetation, each of the 11 tracks on Special Rumble finds its own niche of sound machinery to consume, and we as listeners become hypnotized spectators to this leisurely digital feast. - Alex Reynolds, Grooves Magazine Issue #6

These people speak a strange language, and I don't claim to understand what they're saying at all. But I do appreciate its sound. Colongib and Christopher Graves belong in the gang of cutups that use smallish loops to construct oddly stilted but largely rhythmic compositions. It's a sound simultaneously organic and artificial. On "Gimble The Nozzle," it's the beat of an unbalanced washing machine punctuating a reedy subtle chord line and absentminded bass. As the song progresses, the loops seem to wander off on their own, returning occassionally to chat and synch. In this and other tracks here, you get the eerie feeling of deliberateness, a cold calculation behind the apparently random events of sound. An unusual listening experience -- difficult to relate but easy to appreciate. Kracfive Records: http://www.kracfive.com - Carl Glaser - Ink 19

   Does chocolate smell like a triangle? Do wind chimes sound like the color pink? Seventy years of visual imagery and sound effects have affected our senses in strange ways.
   We see sounds or hear colors. A deep whistle may be a train, possibly a ghost. A sparkling crystal should emit reverberated chimes being unveiled from a felt sack. Rays of sunlight will buzz at high pitch, shattering windows to vaporize the local vampire.
   We link things we may have never actually witnessed to sounds and those sounds become our representation of alien happenstance. This is what most music aspires to do and perhaps what separates good music from bad.
Enter Colongib, the alias of Christopher Graves. While musical scientists such as Autechre come across as alien, mathematical genii pulsing with bioelectrical energy, or Boards of Canada as melancholy forest spirits, Colongib gives the impression of a human medical doctor splicing and sewing the sutures of space time (sound) into a complex work of technologically organic art on his latest album, Special Rumble.
   On first listen, one notices a lack of digital timbre. Everything feels captured (low fidelity "bocks" from a chicken coop, gurgling Komodo dragons, chirping finches) and sequenced into a flapping biotechnical symphony.
   Even the percussives (which most every sound eventually becomes) resound as sloppy aluminum cogs or whipping wires in a 19th century factory. CG uses negative space to punctuate the melody on "gimble the nozzle" and many other times throughout with beautifully accurate yet non-traditional beats.
   When he does come with the synthesizer, it's in the form of long, sustaining, modulated square waves and squirts of enzymatic sonic fluid. This surgery gets messy when the nostalgic longings of "magic spoon" and "scotch and the transparent anatomy" become almost painful, as though a hybrid mechanical-organic lifeform were blindly lurching its way through a sludgy mental stew into existence.
   The lasting impression one retains from this CD is of a transhuman junkyard or a prosthetics storage room covered in lab-grown bacteria. The sleeve art itself appears to be a sort of oxidized machine overgrown with plants and fungus.
   Colongib has crafted an aural reflection of biology merging with technology, a soundtrack to the Human Genome Project and cutting edge bio-tech research.
   Though reviewing is much about conceptualization, hence the metaphors, a reviewer should never imprint too much in the reader's imagination but after more than 50 listens to Special Rumble , each one has been a new experience. Colongib's music is malleable, to say the least.
   CG shares a record label with a number of talented musicians including Pacman, Octopus Inc. and Kettel. Check out www.kracfive.com for free MP3 downloads, ordering and information.
- Isaiah Frizzel - the Richland Chronicle September 12, 2001

The digital musique concrete of found voices, abrasive scratchings, and blurpy electronics is processed through his laptop computer into a dense forest of sounds--on "Magic Spoon," Graves layers birdsong to set a modd, a technique as old as Messiaen--sometimes abrupt and mechanical and other times droney and ambient, but always smartly progressive and not stagnant. And yes, clicking and crunching beats are added quite often, but they can be shuffled and rather irregular, the result of the usual postmodernist cut-and-paste mindset. For example, "True" (not the Spandau Ballet song) reconstructs a jazz lick the way Amon Tobin does on his Ninja Tune releases. In that respect, Colongib's music can be compared to a visual collage moving through the aural dimension of musical time, and in an overcrowded field where such sonic assembly is getting progressively easier due to the availability of the laptop, this CD easily lies in the top 5 percent, along with the output of such respected labels as Warp and Schematic. - Grooves magazine issue #7

A certain virtuosity we also find in Special Rumble, by Colongib and Christopher Graves, but that same virtuosity make the complex structures continiously almost silt up in chaos, far-fetchedness and even absurdity...without that actually to happen! Thats why its really hard to get insight on the the whole. At some parts it kinda works out: in the totality the attention happens to relax (less attention he means, couldnt find the right translation for this). Dominating is a feeling of fragmentizing, how amazing it may sound. Thats why Special Rumble must be seen as a very experimental cd with a minitious programmed and abstract character. The manner of working (collect, cut, paste, manipulate or found soundfragments) is reminiscent to as experimental acts as Matmos, Hrvatski, Freeform, Bisk or Phthalocyanine. So this is highly technologic machinemusic, which is nevertheless sometimes really humoristic and funky. - Gonzo Circus magazine (translated from Dutch)

480% better than his last album! 20 years in the making, this album hears Colongib collaborating with life-long soul-mate Chris Graves. Songs and soundscapes are assembled with great detail and changing nonrepetition, yet not 100% abstract: still accessible and with 80% more funk. This album has personality. A sense of humor from an odd kracfive land. Colongib and likeminded fellows (elsepeople de Kracfive, Matmos, Freeform, Atom, Ae, Bisk, Phthalo, Hrvatski, Sonig camp..) seem to be building a new language in music - sourcing sounds from all walks of life (microphones in hand at all times, electronic synthesis, sampling, altered often beyond recognition and fitted together as if originally from the same world) and composing with them in a technically impressive manner while retaining an organic feel. A beautiful and appropriate machineplant mess for artwork, built by Tpolm and Graves.

CD. Your CD I find moody. Up and down and sometimes dreaming in REM. Sometimes it's at a party, and sometimes its building machines. Sometimes it's in America and sometimes its in Asia. - Sivan

Colongib + Chris Graves: special rumble cd (Kracfive). With Special Rumble, gone are the video game noises and crunchy afx-esque percussions of previous Colongib & Pacman releases. In their place, Colongib & Chris Graves deliver a surprisingly mature and complex album that leans more towards the early workings of Matmos or even the less-frantic Hrvatski tracks than Aphex Twin. A few of the high points of this release include 'Fea Needs Fixing' which sounds like was entirely build from chopped up vocal samples and environmental sounds, 'Scotch and the Transparent Anatomy' which is a dark melancholy track, 'Relative Salmon' which is a dark glitch track that evolves into a much lighter piece a nice ghostly melody, and finally 'True' which is a playful downtempo jazz track with live-sounding bass and percussion. Throughout Special Rumble Chris Graves and Colongib continually succeed in creating a mature, complex, playful, and sometimes chaotic atmosphere that fans of Matmos, Hrvatski, and maybe Unagi Patrol or Adrien75 should enjoy. Special Rumble is a surprisingly impressive release from the Kracfive crew. Give it a try. - Lance @ Inaudible

Again such a label that so far completely at me by-rushed and now suddenly a thick package over the Atlantic sends. Krachig and rumbling Colongib and Christopher throw their Samples under the dozer, hang them to the dry into the sun around then with punching out forms for Weihnachtsplaetzchen to newer of fragments to then out-sting. Only then geht's it seems loosely, so at least. CutUpFrickel of the classical type, everything much prozessiert and kleinteilig, it takes the usual three minutes, until the Fetzen was and the TRACK falls on all Viere. Not really innovative thus, but which is that today already still. Nevertheless beschwingt, by sections and little inspires makes these more special verkopft Rumble more fun than one at the beginning nevertheless thinking likes, even if those made sure already very much that all should be a little here different and above all always little a more, which lets the brows pull up then. As much do not think, young! - thaddi @ de:bug

Original (above is machine translation attempt):
Wieder so ein Label, dass bisher komplett an mir vorbeigerauscht ist und nun plötzlich ein dickes Paket über den Atlantik schickt. Krachig und polternd werfen Colongib und Christopher ihre Samples unter die Planierraupe, hängen sie dann kurz zum trocknen in die Sonne um dann mit Ausstanzformen für Weihnachtsplätzchen wahllos neue Fragmente herauszustechen. Erst dann geht's los, so zumindest scheint es. CutUpFrickel der klassischen Art, alles sehr prozessiert und kleinteilig, es dauert die üblichen drei Minuten, bis sich die Fetzen gefunden haben und der Track auf alle Viere fällt. Nicht wirklich bahnbrechend also, aber was ist das heute schon noch. Dennoch beschwingt, streckenweise erfreulich inspiriert und wenig verkopft macht dieser spezielle Rumble doch mehr Spass als man zu Beginn denken mag, auch wenn die Jungs schon sehr darauf geachtet haben, dass hier alles ein bisschen anders und vor allem immer ein bisschen mehr sein soll, was einen dann schon die Augenbrauen hochziehen lässt. Nicht soviel nachdenken, Jungs!


KFAT007CD Octopus Inc : Mere Things & Mindless Creatures CD

I've heard this described as "downtempo", but I think that's a bit of a misnomer. It sports a bit of a downtempo influence, but it has too much of a playful/experimental streak running through it to fit neatly into that slot. This is fun and interesting to hear and will be a while in my player. Really nice and highly recommended. Unexpected lush feel every now and then (next to a crunch here and there) and some very lovely melodies bubbling through this. --Jeff Klein

the sound design as a whole feels so extremely purposeful....every sound makes sense in the context of it's respective song.....everything is so picturesque....this music is quite visual, which adds to the emotional associations, each track is like a story... - Domenick Annuzzi

just wanted to make a quick mention of this cd, quite enjoyable, groovy if you're in the right mood. the best way i can sum this up is that this is how the Bola album should have sounded. some nice melodic crunchiness mixed with burgening ambient soundscapes at points, developing into some minimal crunchiness at others. once again very enjoyable, cool original packaging. -DJ Merck

Songs by the master of dead languages and organic fellow. Clicky things sandwiched between pads and tweets and smooth things, all served on a bed of occasional low frequencies. With K5Groove! Contains supreme tonal balance #8. Music for the unpretentious, restless and thoughtful. Not music for robots though! (Reference Plaid, BOC, Atom Heart) -Dolem Magazine #4

Octopus Inc is also known as Noah Sasso, that young chap who created the Pacman 2xcdr a while back on Kracfive. While Pacman resided on the experimental construction of weird beats and odd samplings, Octopus Inc sounds "more" refined, and contains minimal idm tracks that should appeal to K5 fans. Highlights on here would include "Milano," "Headkem," and "Baby CPU Clock." -Pietro da Sacco (Grooves Magazine reviewer)

A touch of downtempo influence, warm and quite emotional electronic melodies, an important touch of playful/experimental,.... make this record very good, interesting and quite fun in a way. This record is on the promising electronic label Kracfive. -NAMSKEIO


KFAT006CD Kettel : Dreim CD

Kettel is Reimer Eising, who is being busy, next to being a musician, with hunting gnomes. Not much from that is to be recognized on the wonderously beautiful 'Dreim'. More important is that Kettel is gonna run with the 1st prize, that is the most virtuous electronaut of this moment. The fact that this is a debut album make the expectations of the future even more higher and higher, cos Eising is evidently rarely reminiscent to the top-groups Plaid or Boards of Canada. So that means melancholic atmospheres, filmic ambient-carpets, repetitive hiphopbeats an, above all, heavenly melodies. Layer after layer Kettel builds his tracks, till they form one symbiotic entitiy. The listener gets grabbed by the rich emotions and the many urges to daydream and fantasize. The quality of the tracks (actually these are songs, or at least minisongs) is so exceptionally high, that you can call a comparison with equal acts irrelevant. 'Dreim' is a memorable album in every way. - Gonzo Circus magazine (translated from Dutch)

. Kettel: dreim cd (Kracfive) Planet-Mu & Neo Ouija producer Reimer Eising, aka Kettel, chose the Kracfive label for his debut US album entitled 'Dreim.' This album features 12-tracks of warm bleepy electronica perfectly suited for fans of 'artificial intelligence'' early Warp records sound. At times you would swear you're listening to Inculubula, other times you hear a Spanners influence, whereas other times you hear hints of classic Plaid or the Brothomstates web-only album. Now making those comparisons doesn't mean that Kettel is rehashing old sounds here, instead Kettel has crated a beautifully familiar album that makes my early-90s-electronica-hungry ears wiggle with joy. Fans of early Autechre, Black Dog, Plaid, Plus One, or Brothomstates should definitely check this one out - a 'Dreim' come true. Very nice indeed. -Lance @ Inaudible

Reimer Eising is tapped into the same pools as Plaid and many of the Emanate Records roster. Jittery rhythms slip and slide over melodies that'd bring a smile to your grandma's face. Eising has a penchant for the bouncy and doesn't hesitate to strip things down for maximum funk effectiveness ("Top Space"). If I had a nickel for every solemn visage Dreim has cracked, I'd be a rich man. - Nirav Soni - Ink 19

After a year of hard working and gnome hunting, the chicken punisher finally delivers his debut album. Reimer Eising with his Kettel-Dreim LP has built a cool trunk-full of melodic nostalgia and grooves with a hip-hop attitude. His use of repetition and layering is done similar to the way of Plaid or Boards of Canada, feelings drawn from simple movements with purpose. Dream-like connections between the parts. Memorable songs. Discover a great album where the ambivalent dsp frills of some are replaced with original fun and emotion.

Kettel is a nice one, notices one directly. Its album verströmt own kind from Fluffigkeit that one along-jumps directly times. Caution, asks from the way. Small zerschrammte HipHopBreaks, virtuos klimprige melodies A la Plaid (no joke), bilateral Streicherschub, slow motion panorama of the balcony, Hawaiian Steeldrums with Blumenklöppel, between in it a max Patch, Pop evenly, still another Erdbeersaft? Dreim makes fun. Short Review, ingenious disk. - thaddi @ de:bug

Original (above is machine translation attempt):
Kettel ist ein Netter, das merkt man gleich. Sein Album verströmt eine ganz eigene Art von Fluffigkeit, dass man gleich mal mitspringt. Vorsicht, bitte aus dem Weg. Kleine zerschrammte HipHopBreaks, virtuos klimprige Melodien a la Plaid (kein Witz), bilateraler Streicherschub, Zeitlupenrundblick vom Balkon, hawaiianische Steeldrums mit Blumenklöppel, zwischendrin ein Max-Patch, Pop eben, noch einen Erdbeersaft? Dreim macht Spass. Kurze Review, geniale Platte.


KFAT005CD Pacman : This is the End 2xCDR

Pacman's debut double full length album on Kracfive is a powerfully melodic follow-up to his old demo-tape highly regarded by IDM list members back in '96 and skillful remixes on the Pacman|Colongib split. Disc one contains all new Pacman tracks and disc two is filled with various extra bits, remixes and compilation appearances. Contrasting simplistic and complex melodies and rhythms; not easily categorized, seriously fun, memorable and emotional. Be aware there is truth in the title: this is the final album of Mr. Pacman. "..beautiful crunchy stuff. 'Wicked Slow' is sweetness incarnate." -Doug Rorshach

Pacman's debut, This is the End (Kracfive), is a double CD full of bleeps and dexterous digital funk. -Interface Magazine version 15 July 1999

Not as retro electro as the name Pacman (a.k.a Noah Sasso) might suggest, This is the End manages to encompass all forms of "intellegent" electronic music in its 19 tracks (perhaps a "style gobbler"?). Some tracks suggest a Black Dog/Plaid inluence ("Techno by Numbers" and "Drug Reference"), others have an Aphex-y touch (most blatantly "Coyrex 9") and "Freud's Last Stop" seems to be a Kraftwerk show. He even does the very trendy porno number, remixing The Drop Team's "Play With My Balls." But Pacman is hardly a slave to his influence. He's particularly effective with some start/stop stutter-funk, which, as the title of one track suggests, is "Wicked Slow." He also busts loose with some retro on the groovy "Pacman Meets the Promenade" and the old-school electro boogie of "Pacman's Song Live." There are a few spots towards the back half where tracks lumber a bit, but, for the most part, This is the End shows Sasso to be ready for the big leagues. -Sean Portnoy, Grooves Magazine


KFAT004CD Colongib : Mapping Music CD

_mapping music_ immediately embarks in no-filler mode & starts off with a stun, 'buckshot', which already makes matters complicated to start with as you wonder: 'is that really going on?' & yes, it is going on, & you are glad it is... the beats crunch, & the melodic track is everywhere: once funk, then jazz (lots of that, but totally messed up), then mulches & granules... 'dr. ganfo and cousin dextah chillin in the basement' & 'giraffunkedgazz' (the latter a collaboration with miragliuolo) are of this inclassifiable breed of songs which you can't really call jazz yet recognize a pattern, _something_ which has jazz in it. & it happens to swing & groove & be happy with itself. indeed, _mapping music_ is a complex affair. its name is well deserved: music like this can't come from a textbook or from used fusion vinyls from the seventies. it has yet to be mapped out so that others may find the trail or be lost forever in an ocean of infinite noodling. --david turgeon

Mapping Music is the fourth release for Kracfive label head Christopher Graves; it is also the first entry into the pressed CD domain. While timbres of digital noise flow into spacious undercurrents, Mapping Music retains a smooth symphonic Atari-game vibe that rings a nostalgic bell. The jazz-infused collaboration track with Miragliuolo on "Giraffunkedgazz" blends a rather smooth (Seinfeld) guitar-lick with complex beats and a smooth chorus line/melody. 95% of Mapping Music takes odd snippets of skittering beats and textures to form a unique musical entity that can only be described as pure Colongib engineering. The other 5% of the music is meant to unfold the complicated musical map that Mr. Graves has drawn-up for us. In a mere 65 minute journey through digital melodic noise, Mapping Music combines a quirky arrangement of polyrhythmic moods, distorted beats, and obscure rhythms. While other electronic act's noodle with their lab-tops, Colongib maps a new direction for strange electronic bits and bytes that many will classify under the IDM name-tag. If Atari and Commodore had joined heads, they would have hired Christopher Graves to supply the music connecting the funky pictures to the encapsulating movements. Colongib not only creates the same pictures and movements on Mapping Music, he pushes the experimental boundary to a whole other level. The folks at Kracfive are creating funky robot-music for human ears to enjoy. Looking forward to more stuff on this (mind) expanding label.. -Pietro Da Sacco, Grooves Magazine Issue #3

On the cover, there's a picture of a guy seemingly using an Atari to compose his music. Don't believe it. What's really happening on this record is that the Atari is using the guy. More robofunk in the vein of the track that appeared on the Blip, Bleep compilation. Not quite as concerned with the full-on coin-op sound as MegaBlasterFiend; indeed, there's quite a large spectrum of sounds on this album, but it's all in the same chunky structural vein. Sounds almost random at times, but never loses the beat. Staccato, wicked and despite the constant rhythmic presence it's almost totally unsuitable for the dancefloor. Headphones. Definitely headphones. On a closing note: The track "Giraffunkedjazz" is the only tune to date I've heard that used that infamous synthesized slap bass (a la Seinfeld) to any good effect. In fact, I really like that track. Things you never thought were possible... -Tom Millar

Mapping Music draws on the melodic structures of early Autechre and Black Dog, but inverts them in a wholly original manner, keeping the production nicely dirty and lo-fi. Like Boards of Canada or Pilote, this is techno in a pastoral mode, recalling rural landscapes seen through the windows of a high-speed train. -CMJ Magazine

Starts off with an eerie yet enchanting beat, and manifests its way into a nice video gamish melody. Throughout the album you hear crunchy and complicated beats followed by minimal yet interesting melodies. -Marumari

Colongib (Christopher Graves) favors the busy-busy maximalist approach to electronic music, layering cranky rhythms and counter-rhythms over an intricate latticework of bonkers video-game sound FX and majestic synth melodies. The music comes across as a hybrid of Autechre's crushed-metal textures and bolt-spitting beats and Plaid's exotically tuneful lushness. Mapping Music has a playful loopiness, but it never goes mushy or corny, for which we give thanks. -Alternative Press Oct 1999

mr graves does something really cool on this. using samples that reflect what is typically found throughout 'idm' (and some not) he puts together peices that reflect musically the structure of progressive rock (ie rush and such) and it works -very- well. its an extremely good release and musically its a a huge leap (not that previous colongib material wasn't really good, this is just quite a bit better :) everytime i listen, it brings visions of rush and simon pyke conspiring against the realm of idm. -chris gosselin


KFAT003CD V/A : Penguin Mechanics Vol III CD

More machines on Penguin Mechanics Volume III, a conceptalbum even on which diverse artists (he makes a real nice metaphor-joke which i translated as "diverse artists", cos the joke only works in dutch.. but its really funny. not cynical tho. just nice dutch-use) were asked to put machinesounds into music and rhythms. The only restriction was that the music had to sound like a machine itself very closely, but for the rest everything was permitted to be used: motors, computers, robots, toys, etc... as long as the result was machinal. Its really weird to conclude that the tracks are less indrustrial than expected (except for the the cruel violence of Phthalocyanine and the audio-anarchism of V/VM). The obligate percussion on steelplates is present sometimes, but the accent is more on the soundscapes and spun out, non-linear rhythms. Its not ripoffs, or imitators, but you can call Autechre the headline of this excellent IDM-compilation. The expected soundwinds are not blowing: instead of that the storm is peaceful and even melancholic, for example in the track by Bauri. More famous names (Freeform, Phthalocyanine, Lackluster, V/VM and Cex) are combined with obscure artists like Versh Gear Choir, Octopus Inc, Brothomstates, Miragliuolo, Pacman, Colongib, Proem and Chaircrusher. But also these obscure artists have enough quality to be remembered. Penguin Mechanics Vol III is a stabile compilation, with an unusual concept, which knows no lowest point, but isnt exceptional anywhere either. Its just a sound, general view. -Gonzo Circus magazine (translated from Dutch)

The mechanics were given nearly complete freedom, with the rough guideline of constructing a track that resembles the machine, possibly utilizing recorded / synthesized sounds of -- klankgrinding, motor whirring, metallic collisions, beeps and buzzes -- into rhythmic components. Resultant mechanical devices complement one another: warring machines, lighthearted apparati, anxious robotics, mighty bomotractors with wide loads, thumping gadgets ready for inspection... all in the genus groovemechanismi. Features these artists: brothomStates, Freeform, Colongib, Versh Gear Choir, Bauri, Octopus Inc, V/VM, Proem, Pacman, Chaircrusher, Phthalocyanine, Lackluster, Miragliuolo, Cex.
Special packaging - no 2 copies are the same (each cover photo and machine part is different).

[The tracks are] first rate, and each is an idosyncratic piece connected to the others by a common set of clanking and buzzing noises. Some samples are twisted beyond all common recognition, but they quote and comment on the original even as they decimate it. I think it's a cool world that can allow a CD like this to happen. -Kent Williams

from http://www.ink19.com/issues_F/00_04/wet_ink/music_pr/penguin_mechanics.shtml:
The sounds assembled are as diverse as this concept merits. Phthalocyancine's drudging monster "Metalo-meld-mechano" resembles [the] description most. Coarse sandpaper atmospheres crouch below massive machine thumps. This is what going to a Survival Research Labs performance could sound like. Octopus Inc. takes the concept into another direction with the melodic "Goldbug." A surprising number of the contributions to this compilation are at least marginally melodic, contradicting what I had heard about the soullessness of the comp. V/VM stick out among all of the camps involved, their "Mechanical Force Resistance..." is a burning shard of power electronics with a rhythmic bent. Not dissimilar to what Merzbow would sound like if he ditched much of his analog gear and switched to a laptop. Colongib contributes a manic analog synth workout similar to his recent work.
While not every track on this compilation is as spectacular as those detailed above, Penguin Mechanics provides about an hour of solid entertainment, and serves to document a(nother) sub-movement in the electronic field.

An eclectic array of machines from the grinding of early 20th-c industrial machinery to more fanciful, early 21st-c bleeps and bloops. Really impressive line-up of artists -- Proem, Cex, Octopus Inc, Colongib, and others -- many of whom I only knew by reputation, so a very worthwhile purchase. I even liked the industrial accident of a track by V/VM. It does upset our cat, however, who immediately runs under the bed when it comes on :) -Susanna Helmut

from http://www.hauntedink.com/25/penguin.html:
like Lucky Kitchen's "Blip, Bleep," this album is a concept album; rather than focusing on imaginary video games, however, this album takes as its focus imaginary machines or imaginary scenarios involving machines. Artists like Freeform, V/VM, Pacman, Colonglb, and Octopus Inc take this concept and run with it, and the results are certainly mechanicized, but also a lot of fun. Some of the machines constructed in this 14 track epic include "Full Baz Pts," "Goldbug," "Computercuddle," "Metalo-meld-mechano," "Sandwich Train," "Angry Robot Locked in Compartment Wrenches Itself Free," and "Mechanical Force Resistance at 30mph through Contraflow--driven by the Stranger." Actually, if you are familiar with any of the above artists, or with Kracfive's other releases, then you can probably guess what this disk sounds like: building block songs with lots of white, red frenzy (with a little black noise added in), running from mid-to-hot tempos, instrumentation almost entirely sampled machine sounds and CGD (the difference is minimal), with the occasional synth sound thrown in. This is great stuff, lots of fun and filled with imaginative, inspired ideas. Some of the songs sink a little too far into the industrial noise realm for my taste, but those moments nevertheless make sense within the context of the album. After all, we're talking machines here, and machines make noise.

Mecha-land has a new visitor, a machine of penguins ransacking the neighborhood. Watch out as the Creators make constant repairs to their collection, tinkering with their tin toys, fine-tuning and then occassionally KANKZHRAP! a manufacturing error, or one becomes angry and does the ol destruction trick. -Popular Mechanics July 1999


KFAT002CD Colongib : Upgrade [to v2.0] CDR

"Debut album by artist Colongib and second release on label Kracfive. Expect more of the same scalpel sharp precision of sequencing as the first release on the label. Exploding zaps, raucous kickdrums and hard percussion. Highlight is track "Dr. Ganfo's Symphony #1" which is a sometimes funny yet altogether violent and certainly magical piece." - the Barrio

Somewhere between squished Atari beats and distorted polyrhythms lie a new domain of electronic artists pushing alien bleeps in new, quirky directions. Labels like Schematic and Chocolate Industries, Isophlux, Plug Research and Suction Records are at the forefront of disharmonious, complex electronic music. With only two demos out on his own Kracfive Records (the cassette-only Colongib 1 and Pacman|Colongib with Noah Sasso), Christopher Graves' Colongib project is creating quite a stir amongst the electronic underground. Now he's set to release his second solo full-length album, Colongib: Upgrade [to v2.0] in mid-November. "I am into hearing music that sounds like nothing I've heard before," Graves explains. "The same old notes and rhythms don't do much for me. I don't appreciate the 4/4 bass drum for much more than dancing." -Interface Magazine version 14 March 1999


KFAT001CD Pacman|Colongib split CDR

"This release is a 14-track collaboration remix project between Pacman and Colongib. Both the Pacman and Colongib tracks have a dark distorted crunchy early aphex twin-type percussion backed with lighter nintendo-esque melodies giving the whole listening experience a very nostalgic feeling." -Lance McGannon

"Fat bass sounds, video game sound quality at times, fast mechanical percussion sequences. All sounds are intensively edited and processed so that they are very unrecognisable as anything ever heard before. Robotic composition style which is refined and expert. Melodies are elaborate and changing. Features two versions of track "Thumb Machine" which are both highlights to be sure. Unique and hard to find-a real gem." -the Barrio