Hands To / Jeph Jerman

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, December 09, 2009, 10:29:16 PM

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ashraf

#30
I have copies of a collaborative lp that my duo/project, Ones, made with Jeph Jerman:

Ones/Hands - 1997-2005.

It's an LP in an edition of 250 composed of live improvs I made with Jeph in Seattle in '97 and also mail exchanges in 2004. This is a remastered version of a small batch CDr issued on White Tapes.

https://www.discogs.com/OnesHands-19972005/release/1962591

(the copies for sale on discogs are not mine but hey, grab them cheap while they're up)

Here's what Jeph had to say about this release:
   
"while in new york city in summer 2004, i met with my old friend daniel mitha. daniel was a frequent player during the anomalous weekly sessions. he suggested we do something together again. i eventually sent him a disc of various sounds recorded at home. he took these sounds and mixed them with recordings made years earlier, at aforementioned anomalous sessions...then he passed the mixture on to his friend nick phillips, who obviously ran the whole mess through some sort of magical device or process and viola! a mysterious and engaging little disc of oddly-displaced sounds. this will more than likely come out in greater numbers, in a different format, in the near future. one of my favorite results. it still sounds different every time i listen."

Anyone interested can reach me ongoingdiscipline@gmail.com

Bloated Slutbag

Quote from: bitewerksMTB on October 13, 2011, 10:05:36 PMI always liked City of Worms more than Hands To.

Can't say I feel the same way, but mainly because the Cow has long since ceased its mournful moo. At some points reminds of Zoviet France, if ZF were to trade in their ethnic preoccupations for more monochrome boiler room atmos, to revel in the drear and heaving rasp of gutted out, herniated, machinewerk. I freely associate the bovine excretions with names like Illusion Of Safety and PBK, in no small part on account of the epic and sprawling Step Into The Step...

https://www.discogs.com/ja/PBK-City-Of-Worms-Hudak-Illusion-Of-Safety-Step-Into-The-Step/release/1330799

...true industrial-strength wet dream, dense and ambitious conglomeration of head nodding sludge thunk n bludger, to rival the earlier mentioned Holeist for rockstar pantomime of "industrial music for industrial people".

From City Of Worms proper, my pick would be Crumnants, which is probably what inspired the above ZF-stuck-in-industrial-sludge comparison. In my mind's ear, a perfect time capsule of a certain period of sound, of determined interminable drear, and yet one that I've yet to encounter elsewhere.


Quote from: Johann on November 05, 2015, 05:10:56 PM
To those that may be interested, this just got reissued

http://forcednostalgia.bandcamp.com/album/rough-music-the-hands-to-library

Just came across this, like, just now. And... and... well, resistance was futile. Agree with all the questioning and all the agreement thus far expressed. It's quite a thing to feel simultaneously like sucker and glutton.

Flipping through some of the items from the same bandcamp and it is literally impossible to resist something like

Q'Ojfa
https://forcednostalgia.bandcamp.com/album/qojfa

Seriously.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

FreakAnimalFinland

New Jeph Jerman LP on White Centipede Noise. GREAT. Listened in couple of times and I was surprised how noisy it is. At times one could pretty much file it under harsh noise, but of course it's not all there is. I need to give it little more time to be able to fully write noteworthy review, but at this moment I can just conclude: Strongly recommended.
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

Bloated Slutbag

Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on February 26, 2018, 06:48:00 PM
New Jeph Jerman LP on White Centipede Noise. GREAT. Listened in couple of times and I was surprised how noisy it is. At times one could pretty much file it under harsh noise, but of course it's not all there is. I need to give it little more time to be able to fully write noteworthy review, but at this moment I can just conclude: Strongly recommended.

Listen to enough Hands To and I'd think it fair to express surprise that anyone would be surprised at the noisy-ness! (Though I suppose in recent days surprise may be granted for things released under the Jerman name proper.) I don't yet have the lp, but the soundcloud samples are very convincing. If "harsh noise" is a stretch, then certainly not "harsh" nor "noise".
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

impulse manslaughter

I prefer the Jerman stuff that isn't harsh noise actually.. Lofi rumbling, scrap iron or just unexpected combinations of strange electro/acoustic sounds. Saw him live last year and he played a great acoustic set with just some random object and a few small instruments.

Bloated Slutbag

I think we, or some of us, are speaking the same language, even if different words are being used. Wankers like Soddy would probably assign high scores for raw (a descriptor I admittedly toss about with rough abandon), where scores for harsh would be quite variable. The Hands To dvd library that everyone needs is entitled Rough Music, which sounds about right (will comment further when it's in my... exceedingly... grubby hands).
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

WCN

Not a fan of mp3's in general, but the Hands To Librarby collection DVD is essential. And yes, this stuff is foundational harsh noise and has been incredibly influencial for me. I've got a couple copies of the DVD coming in, some of the last from the label. Drop me a line if interested.
Harsh Noise label and EU based distro of American Imports
https://whitecentipedenoise.com/

Johann

Listening to Debris by Jerman tonight: 3 track CD-R, has one of Jeph's decaying images on the front and a track list/description on the back. First track is a collection of the unused remnants of various cassette field recordings, rough sound and crackle...voices pop in and out of the mix but never stay long enough to impart any real message. The second says it's four track loops, it remains on the quiet side even at a high volume...wind interference and traffic noise (?) cuts through, nice rough sound, organic with hints of an electrical interference. I don't know i'd even suspect loops if it wasn't explicitly stated, but then again, to anyone who has even recorded an endless buildup of non sound on a loop tape with no erasehead  and played it back later it has a similar vibe, it's the sound of everything as it always is. 3rd track says it's malfuctioning machines, turntable and reel to reel...has a hissy quality to it, and kind of sounds like a tea kettle rattling away with micro sounds of the room, even at high volume the sound never really fills the room, it more so seeps in, blending with the environment of the listener. As shit gets going you begin to hear the tape sucking through the machines as the motors chuck and clank, a dense hum in the air. Raw rhythms seeping in underneath reminding me of some of Scott foust material or maybe xx committee. A highly enjoyable listen!

Strangecross

The White Centipede LP is my first exposure to this project. First thing, the packaging is great. Sounds like junk metal, but at some point the lp developes a brooding structure that is hard to decipher how it is made. Impressive.

Johann

First listen to the Bray Harp today, excellent LP, A side starts off with that rough noise that Jerman has come to be known for. Not to loud, not quiet, just moving through the landscape. Occasional metallic clink, interference, moving into a dense field of low end. B side is excellent junk noise, stands up there with early TNB. Nice close mic clank. No effects, it winds down into more of that rough sound field and ends. I'm excited to give it more listens...also came with a CD-R. Not sure if that was the label or Jeph direct, I haven't gotten time to investigate it yet. If it's different than the LP I'll report back. Packaging was excellent, tore up the sleeve pretty good. Collectors nightmare I'm sure! Hah. I think it was Careful Catalouge that added a note with the release that just cracked me up "To reiterate, there is a large piece of sandpaper on the front of this record. Multiple copies were shipped together from Germany. Abrasions are to be expected. Kind of the point here." hats off the White Centipede for bringing this one together.

impulse manslaughter

Revisited the 2 CDs on Zabriskie Point this week and really enjoyed SFO. Did not care so much for Hand To Turn My Hands To..

FreakAnimalFinland

Quote from: impulse manslaughter on April 01, 2018, 10:42:25 PM
Revisited the 2 CDs on Zabriskie Point this week and really enjoyed SFO. Did not care so much for Hand To Turn My Hands To..

Also re-visited these! Zabriekie Point - not huge discography for label, but really good stuff. Been browsing through early 90's Artware catalogues and even if it is "only" catalogues, damn it's good reminder how many labels out there who did handful of good items, but barely remembered these days among noteworthy labels.
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

Bloated Slutbag

#42
Quote from: impulse manslaughter on April 01, 2018, 10:42:25 PM
Revisited the 2 CDs on Zabriskie Point this week and really enjoyed SFO. Did not care so much for Hand To Turn My Hands To..

Was just listening to the latter earlier today. Quite nice grab bag of competing episodic texture. Go nowhere defeatism, acoustic splatter-clack, road weary heel-drag, requisite bilge-loads of muffled flatulence plowing through the rough. Very Hands To sort of Hands To.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

Bloated Slutbag

Jeph Jerman - 34°111'3"N 111°95'4"W
Glorious monaural recordings at an old disused windmill. The artwork seems a deliberate attempt to separate the work from classic "industrial" connotation, but the sounds are about as industrial as you can get... if by industrial you mean burnt out industrial ruins literally put to pasture. Thick, heavy metal clunking and clanking, unhurried, exploratory, semi-bemused sound recordist wandering around testing acoustic properties of steel thunking onto steel. The recurring image, for me, is of mic sunk deep into abysmal mine-shaft, or crypt, varied species of thunk nearly subsumed by receding low end reverberations conjuring spectral atmosphere verging on drone. Early on there actually is a droning passage delivered by, I'd guess, low-flying biplane. But for the most part sedate almost somber study in de-industrialized tranquility, funeral music for a once proud civilization mercifully laid to rust.

Jeph Jerman – Exploded View
Good and proper drone here, conjured from a range of rough n tumble sources. The lens on sources reveals innumerable cracks and fissures... the whole thing is a like a meditation on cracks and fissures, wrinkles and rumples, scratchings and scourings, rolled into willowing wisp of mid to low end rumble-burble. When the drone proper kicks in, it is principally of the whining industrial persuasion, machine-like drear rolling inexorably forward, though more tonal properties occasionally emerge. Perhaps concentrated listening is to be rewarded but as focus is dragged under the submerged convergence of drone and clutter conspires to drive the nodding attention into half-dazed lalaland, which is no bad thing!

Jeph Jerman and Steve Jansen – First Second
I wonder if the windmill on the cover is the same one from which the recordings in the above 34°111'3"N 111°95'4"W were taken. "Disused" would be putting it mildly, foregrounded by bleached skeletal remains on parched earth.  With Jansen contributing "tape, electronics" we're not getting quite the rough n ragged MO repped in the solo work, but fairly rich hollowed out drone that seeks to set off the Jermanian materials on hand. This feels like structured presentation in proper performance space, so lacking the intriguing acoustic phenomena of a solo joint, less at the mercy of the elements more turning them to our own unholy devices.


V. Sinclair – Dedication
Nothing to do with Jerman, but I just happened to be listening to this around the same time as the above three and it seemed a good complement. There's a fair bit more "composition" to this, but there are affinities as far as crumbling, rumpled scrap sources collaged together in apparent haphazard dishevelment, heavy emphasis on very raw, ragged, texture, with subtle ambient undertone lending melancholic undulation. Could be mellowed out TNB/Organum, great stuff.
Someone weaker than you should beat you and brag
And take you for a drag

thetenthousandthings

Does anyone know if Jeph is still playing live? I would travel just to see a performance of his.
I checked his site for a mailing list or some method of staying updated too... will just have to keep eyes peeled.