various / urck

Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music

Subtitled as "A Compilation Of Eastern Influenced Experimental Music", this compilation from the Urck label compiles two full 80-minute discs worth of material that draws inspiration from a modern-day, internet-fuelled equivalent of what in colonial times used to be called 'the Orient'. With labels like Sublime Frequencies making available the most vehemently underground sounds from the furthest corners of the globe, a project like this makes a certain amount of sense. These 'post-Asiatic' compositions are made by artists who don't necessarily have a first-hand bond to the musical cultures they channel, but are still entrenched in the language and stylistic traits of the far-off 'East'. Artists like Amps For Christ, Pyramids On Mars and Volcanoisis all apply techniques steeped in the idiom of rock music to their quasi-Eastern appropriations, while more obviously authentic fare comes from Charles Powne's dreamlike Indian Field Recordings. Blurring lines between these two camps are entries from Z'ev and Ramona Ponzini - and indeed Muslimgauze, whose music openly integrates and subverts ideas about East-meets-West fashioning a kind of experimental hip-hop out of traditional Middle Eastern percussion on 'Zahal End'. The scope of this compilation is huge however, and across the two discs you're presented with the idea of a global radio station via which experimental ideas overlap with traditional indigenous musical forms. Take for example the explosive free-drumming of Chungking's 'Moe! Staiano', the gong-like meditational drones of Metal Rouge or the sheer multicultural heterogeneity of Auto Da Fe's ballad, 'RoRoKoda'. Further to that, there's a pan-Asian quality to much of the tracks' sequencing, illustrated particularly well by an instance on the second disc when the Pownes field document of an Indian rainstorm (an incredible, if all too brief, listening experience in itself) fades into Jerry Lloyd's Burmese theatre recordings. Its a very literal demonstration that in music there are no territories or borders to get in the way.