Awesome mail art

A couple of days ago I received this small parcel courtesy of Node Pajomo himself. He gave me a cool mini mp3 CD-R.

 There was three mini albums inside. The first one was a demo of `The Screamers` from 1977 \ 1978. Here`s a couple of band pics:

I never heard of `The Screamers` before. Their music was real good at the time but I couldn`t stand that annoying high-pitched whine through the whole recording. I remember about twenty years ago or something listening to `Voivod` one of the heaviest metal bands on the planet. It was a similar situation, everything was

absolutely perfect except the damn voice. The singer was good but It  didn`t feel

like his voice could match that heavy, aggressive style.                                              

The second album is a couple of demos from `Vaccumm`. I don`t have much info regarding this band except that their members we`re all shit workers at `Maximum Rock&Roll zine`.        

                                                                                                                         

I like this, it sounds like good old crusty hardcore (amateurish angry, intense, in your face, pissed off). Just what the doctor ordered indeed. Last but not least we finish this mini CD-R with a couple of tracks from the likes of DMS. `Derelict Mosquito Spontaneity` Node Pajomo`s solo experimental noise project. He recorded everything with his Ipod. I wonder what kinda software he used. This sounds really good. The four tracks sound like spacy ambient noise, relaxing stuff. This is user friendly, it    never goes into harsh noise territory (forget about Merzbow, MSBR, or Knurl).      DMS is one of my three favorite experimental noise artists out there. I also adore `Napalmed` (he`s my favorite of all times) and `Meatball Machine`.  Inside Node`s parcel was this incredibly amazing art piece. 

Anyways, it`s a stamp but it`s an artistic stamp no doubt. Pretty nice, eh ?

From parts unknown

I found this in a pile of old letters inside my desk along some stickers and two mp3 CD-R`s (someone gave me or traded, I don`t remember, yes it`s been that long). No address, no signature, no information whatsoever. If I want to sound like a wrestling announcer I would say something like this:

`Ladies and gentlemen, in the left corner the challenger, he hails from parts unknown, weight unknown, sex unknown (maybe two or three times a day), identity unknown`, well that wraps it up.All bad jokes aside kudos and respect to the unknown artist out there. I like your cute lil`cartoon. It would be a great addition to any type of  zine. You`re a really talented artist, keep up the good work whoever you are.

;-)

Oblongata – Oblongata (bootleg tape)

Another trade item.  No cover and no information whatsoever (I found nothing on the internet). Oblongate receives the award of the anonymous album of the day. There`s 6 tracks on this here recording. The `music` is dirty, noisy, heavily distorted, grungy guitar works (think Mudhoney, Alice In Chains, or Tad) with some peaceful moments (think ambient noise) thrown in. This isn`t my favorite experimental noise recording. I`m blasé `cause I`ve listened to a shitload of similar material. To be perfectly honest, three pieces caught my attention. The first one `00`is a nice slow, grungy, spacey attack of the senses. It sounds like being inside a space vacuum, wow! The second one `bells `, uses some nice percussive low-fi bell sounds (I like it, I like it). Thre last piece `sutara`. is a Jim Jonesesque, obsessive, catholic spoken word piece. The perfect way to end it.                       

poetry corner

Inside the bland hole 

(François Marceau)

Low-fi percussions & tight ambience

A wobbling bassline

Lots of sampling with light sequencing

Minimal techno in the air

No band

No deejay

No MC in sight

Computerized emotionless simulacra

Holograms of déjà vu

Dancing like a robot on Viagra

Without meaning

Without sense, emotionless

A couple of smart / speed drinks

Some tabs of unknown origin

Keeps you going

It starts to make sense

Even though there is no sense at all

It feels like

You`re part of the crowd

You`re part of the gang

Feels like you`re fitting in

For once…

There`s a rave in my head wich never stops.

This time around, mailart from USA

I received recently those amazing mailart pieces, courtesy of Node Pajomo and Thompson. The following pieces are from Node Pajomo:

Look at the nice black and white almost foggy 'atmosphere' on that one.

This last piece comes from Thompson (who needs no introduction). Look at those details. It's pretty amazing stuff indeed.

Black Beast Of Arrrghhh – bread for the host and salt for the blood (cd-r)

I also got this one as another trade item (hey, I love trading stuff, sue me).  No front \ back cover, no information whatsoever, sweet fuck all. After doing a short search on the internet I discovered that BBOA is a solo noise artist from Zachary, St-Petersburg, USA. He seems to be really active on www.soundcloud.com (lotsa mighty impressive free noise tracks) and www.youtube.com (good live footage).  This album consists of one 30.34

minutes long single track. It starts off with some dark ambient noise,  mixed  with some unidentifiable sounds  + a couple of lo-fi vox samples, it goes in that direction for the first 11 minutes. It slowly mutates into light noise territory, with some harsh noise elements thrown in (think Merzbow, the l ate MSBR)for good measure. It starts to calm down, relax, chill-out near the  end (after the first 26 minutes or so). Ending this track the same way it started, nice and slow, that`s the way to do it, nice and slow. I don`t think this is a noisy release at all. I file it under a long imaginative, creative experimental nearly noise track.  Recommended if you can find it. Damn straight baby.

Black Beast Of Arrrghhh – the noise doctrine (cd)

Another BBOA album , the supreme noisemaster from Zachary (he`s the only  person I know from there) , St-Petersburg, USA. On the color cover, there`s  a megaphone throwing blaring noise in the face of a poor defenseless smuck, courtesy of Tom Maddalena (nive cover dude). The album consists of one 14.17  minutes track (it could have been on a mini CD). And what is does it sound like you might ask? Computer generated voice samples (talking about noise related subjects) are mixed with high pitched feedback \ distortion. The end result is a wall of noise, an extreme sonic assault with a couple of less noisy moments (dare I  say ambient), which makes it easier to digest. I was listening to this after my 12th beer and it started to make sense.  Recommended to extreme noise fans. Count  me in.

Shameless self promotion department

. On Saturday night, November 10^th , 2012 The Butterman was spending the evening at my place. Butter was drinking some Smirnoff Ice (da big ass 1 liter bottle) and I was having a couple of blond L`Intrépide (an amazing microbrewery from Québec). We were discussing the future of `The CHRNCX Of Ridicule`, our internet video log. Why it was censored and what`s the next step in evolution. My laptop was just lying there and I though, wouldn`t it be great to record a complete noise album in one evening. I opened my good old sampler/recorder SoundEngine program. We created thirteen tracks of harsh experimental noiseworks.

Artist name: Flesh For Frank

Album title: The CHRNX Sessions

Here's what the back cover looks like:

Total running time: 58.10 minutes !!!

Get it here:
http://soundcloud.com/flesh-for-frank

Node Pajomo Summer 2012 (zine+ cd-r)

Node Pajomo is a cut and paste contact zine. Expect a huge list of addresses of people into: mailart projects, ongoing mailart projects, tape traders, zine exchange, zine seeking submissions, collaborations, help and archives. No internet contacts, it`s all about the good old, old school postal system. This time around it`s a Node Pajomo \ Pukka Joint Massif split zine. PJM is all about reviews. I really like Node Pajomo`s reviews short and sweet. I will probably contact `Letterfounder` and `Hiroshima Yeah`zines. They seem really interesting. Included inside is a `Audio Mail Art Project` compilation  cd-r featuring 22 underground, fringe artists. The compilation offers a mixture of lo-fi pop, funky electronics, light techno, spoken word, noise, experimental noise, ambient noise and rock and roll (Staggeredly`s performance is worth the price of admission). Imagine in this day and age, no email address, no my waste page, no faceshit \ shitface page, no twitterooni, no fax machine, no texting, how technologically retarded is that. Hey respect to the old school. He`s physically doing something instead of virtually. He`s not the only one either.He`s also one of the two reasons why Mastock came back. Contact: Node Pajoma, PO Box 2632, Bellingham, Washington, 98227-2632, USA.

Meatball Machine – craptastic ! (cd-r)

I got this cd-r as a trade item. No front \back cover, no contact, no information whatsoever. I was curious and I wanted more information, so I googled it. The only data I found was about a Japanese horror movie released in 2005. I watched the trailer on youtube. It kinda looks and feels like watching `Tetsuo The Iron Man Part 2`.  I love weird movies like that. I have to buy a copy. Now I`m losing it. What was I reviewing here ? Meatball Machine`s Craptastic !  cd. It`s a 21.50 minutes long track of evolutive noisework.  Basically the  noise moves, evolves and mutates in strange ways. I hear a mixture (in no particular order) of: various percussions, metal banging, raw feedback  some movie + machines + computer samples. There`s some near calm moments in between the noise apocalypse. If you`re into static, repetitive, redundant feedback noise, then this baby`s not for you.
              I recently did another search on googgle and discovered that you could download the full album for free at:
http://powdergangrecords.bandcamp.com/releases
Here's also what the cover looks like (pretty funky if you ask me):

Thompson part 3

Here's the last batch of Thompson's incredible colour collages. I will probably post some more on the near futur. Enjoy !

Thompson part 2

Here's some more of Thompson' s collages.

Thompson part 1

If you like art like I do, you should check out those amazing colour collages, courtesy of Thompson (P.O.Box 4616, Clearwater, Florida, 33758-4616, USA). He also records some really good experimental noise. It's definitely worth the listen.

 

 

Henriette Valium - music 02 (mini cd)

I bought this at Distroboto, in Montréal. I`m  addicted to Distroboto because every item is sold 2.00 $. This is a 41 song (of mp3 files which is perfect for my mp3 player) mini-album from local underground legend Henriette Valium. Valium is a multidisciplinary artist, drawing comix (he`s been published in Iceberg, Titanic, Hotel amongst others), illustration works and music (Valium Et Les Dépressifs). This is one of his various solo projects. The pseudo-intellectual critic would say that this is mindless noise wanking. I would say that this is near-chaotic noise experimentations. Samples are chopped-up, processed and looped. There`s definitely a song oriented structure at work here. Thus creating a strange sonic language. There`s a lot of percussions and percussive elements thrown in for good measure. This is a  pumped-up, psyched-up, speeded-up, cartoonesque noisy joyride. I like this.                                                                             

Introduction

Mastock was a zine about experimental music which was active from 1999 to 2003. I ended the Mastock adventure for various reasons: lack of time, lack of passion, lack of money (doing a zine is expensive; mail costs are murder), and lack of energy. I felt that doing a zine was taking to much of my time. I wanted to spend my spare time recording my noise and music solo projects. I also wanted to do collaborations with other artists, which I did. Here`s a small list of those collabs:

1- Leper Collective released two albums. LC was a noise duo comprised of Maim Paterson (Bodybags zine) and myself.

2- G&F released three albums. G&F was an almost musical project. Our three albums are very different in feelings and styles.

3- Tectonic Plates has one unreleased album. TP is a sound duo with Alex Wheill and myself. The music is a mixture of various field recordings, found sounds and minimal / ambient moments.

4- Recyclor the first album isn`t finished yet. Recyclor`s music is hard to describe (Alex Wheill and myself). You could say it`s noisy techno with some funky elements thrown in, mixed with loud processed beats. It`s never easy working on Recyclor material, speaking for myself exclusively.

5- Psionic Flesh has one album out, we are currently recording new material. PF is a noise band featuring Jason Rodgers (Psionic Plastic Joy zine) and myself.

I also record solo material. I have two different solo projects:

1- Flesh For Frank, this is experimental noise. Don`t expect music here, that`s for sure.

2- Minimal Frank, more musical than noise. This is where I actually try to do music. What does it sound like ? It`s a mixture of various styles, ambient, ambient darkwave , sometimes lightly techno oriented, sometimes spacey and minimal. It all depends how I feel when I`m recording this stuff. Definitely not commercial enough i.e. you won`t hear this on commercial radio indeed.  

A couple of months ago I got a small parcel from Thompson (noiser and amazing collageist), a long time Mastock collaborator. He gave me a good old analog cassette (yes they`re still around) of great homemade noise. I was hooked. I felt like doing Mastock again but I didn`t want to spend all my spare time working on it. I don`t have the money to pay those highly expensive shipping fees. But I can print a couple of copies, not the usual 160 copies print run. So, what was I gonna do ?

The next step in evolution: going digital.

So, here it is the Mastock blog. I will talk about absolutely anything I feel like. There will be some reviews of various stuff I bought, that some cool folks gave me, traded, downloaded, etc, etc. There could be opinions, ideas, weird writings, poetry, some drawings, who knows.

Getting a hold of me.

You can contact me via email at: frank.zen@vif.com

Feel free to send me stuff for review purposes but don`t send me your material via my email, it doesn`t support big files. Send me a link via mediafire, rapidshare or any other type of file transferring website.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I do everything by myself. So if you send me a shitload of stuff, don`t expect me to review all this stuff tomorrow. I work full time, I have a life, I have various interests outside of Mastock.

This is what I`m into, which makes me tick.

My kind of music, this is what I like (in no particular order):

Noise

Weird homemade recordings

Ambient noise

Ambient darkwave

Electroacoustic

Illbient

Minimal

Experimental

Chill-out

Techno

Trance

Goa

Soundtrack oriented

Lo-fi

Blues

Electronic

Synthpop

Lounge

Dub

Ambient

Field recordings

Cinematic

Some spoken word

Not my kind of music (in no particular order):

8 bit material

classic

western

country

heavy metal (all styles)

rock

punk

pop

grunge

rap / hip hop

jazz

dance

disco

traditional

gothic

ska

some spoken word

Thank you very much, enjoy the blog.

François Marceau