It is just now dawning on me that I have to pre-write and photograph a bunch of records for next week’s An Album A Day posts ahead of time because I’ll be making my annual pilgrimage to Vegas for the NAB conference. This is not sitting well with my laissez faire (sorry, did I say “laissez faire?” I meant “lazy”) attitude toward blogging. It also means I’ll probably have to sit at my computer for the next several hours today (and probably tomorrow night as well) ripping some tracks to post. It’s not coming up with themes that is difficult for me, it’s the process of figuring out five records that fit within the theme, converting them to MP3 and writing the posts that slows me down. Nevertheless, I’m committed to this new format (and I think most of you like it?) so I’m going to stick with it instead of taking days off because I’ll be out of town.
An Album A Day #9. Week two is drawing to a close, and although I have about ten different Mort Aux Vaches titles I could share with you there are but two days left to do so. If there’s enough interested at some point down the line maybe I’ll get to Contrastate, Yellow Swans, Ignatz, Aube, and Merzbow. Those are the ones that didn’t make the cut for this week. The fact that I own so many of these is a testament to the quality of the “label” (I say that, again, because it’s a sub-label of Staalplaat) and the number of fantastic artists who were commissioned to record sessions for VPRO.
Y’all know how much I adore Rutger Zuydervelt. His prolific output under the moniker Machinefabriek has slowed considerably over the past few years but there was a period of time between 2006 and 2008 or 2009 that pretty much everything he released was worth purchasing. Not only do I own a bunch of his albums, I have dozens of files on my computer of digital releases and super-limited, hard-to-find titles. His ability to meld field recordings with ambient, drone and modern classical styles made for a unique and often beautiful combination. Those of you who have been following this blog for years will remember an era when almost every single Sunday Mix Tape would feature some new Machinfabriek composition I’d recently discovered. For a while, the trio of Zuydervelt, Aidan Baker and Dag Rosenqvist (aka Japser TX) dominated the rest of the field in the battle to control my listening habits. According to my Last.FM stats (27,000+ songs scrobbled) Aidan Baker is #1, Machinefabriek is #18 and Jasper TX is number 58 in terms of total plays. When you take into account most of their albums contain, like, five tracks or less (and honestly most of them are just a single track or two sides)…the fact that they are ranked so highly is an impressive feat.
Zuydervelt was commissioned to record for VPRO in 2006 and this album was released two years later. It was pressed in a limited run of 500 hand-numbered copies, making it one of the scarcer titles on the label. It is packaged in a 3-panel brown card sleeve with rubber stamped text and comes with the regular split copper fastener to hold everything in place. It was added to my collection when the same collector who sold off the bulk of his industrial/experimental/avant-garde collection a few years ago brought it to my attention. I have to say, one of the benefits of my job is that the opportunity to attain these titles is greater than it would be if I simply trolled Craigslist and eBay looking for guys liquidating their collections. Plus, where I work doesn’t quite have a large clientele looking for this kind of music, so there is rarely competition to buy these titles. It’s a nice job perk.
Machinefabriek
Mort Aux Vaches
(Mort Aux Vaches, 2008)
01. Bathyale #1
02. Bathyale #2 [MP3]
03. Bathyale #3
