January 2009 Reissues

Two sold out Nonplace CD albums available again:

The reprint of the first SECRET RHYTHMS CD edition is back in stock and the first Nonplace CD, CON RITMO, originally  released in 2000, will be availabale from 6th March 2009. The remastered, edited and redesigned album contains 4 extra tracks from the late 90s production period. “…Lounge music deconstructed by manic phunk preachers.” (Muzik)

original Con Ritmo Release (non03)

Con Ritmo captures the subtleties and complexities of a latin flavoured live performance without descending into mere digital imitation. Friedman likes to play with notions of live, sampled and programmed material.

LINER NOTES: For this groundbreaking project head honcho BURNT FRIEDMAN was joined by the DISPOSABLE RHYTHM SECTION. BF himself handled keyboard & vibraphone activity while new face and six stringed surprise JOSEF SUCHY from Cologne dealt to the electric guitars. BERNIE THE BOLT was coaxed from his Sd-Amerikaine Sound Laboratoria to rattle the pots and pans and also presented his latest technological breakthrough in the form of Humphrey X-34. This so called “bass-bot” has been the main project at the Laboratoria since Bolts work on the Nu Dub Players project (see ~scape 004). To say that this interactive, humanised, instinctualised and improvisional real-time bass man/machine could revolutionise the manky world of MIDI miserabilism is not to overstate the case. Representatives of slop audio companies like Woeland, Toss, Slack-eye and Pro-Fools could be seen skulking around in corners at performances towards the end of the tour longingly eyeing up the prototype Humphrey as it unleashed lick after lick of syncopated improvised bass action. Youthful percussionist Nico “Nuez” Pulsilamo is a graduate of Bolts rhythm school while long time sonic contemporary ATOM HEART joined the outfit for one final night of probing pampaphonics on the final date of the tour in front of a bawdy crowd of seafarers at Punta Arenas notorious Taverna Del Muelle. “Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse” the only track that the general public were deemed ready to hear from this unique tension charged gig contains El Atomo Corazon at his mmmmmmMoogiest, enjoy. The tinkle of ice cubes on glass, the massage of music in the stereo all marinated with first class, premier, top shelf vibes. Turn down the world and tune in to the Con Ritmo vibration.
 
PRESS QUOTES:

”A bit like Magma on Prozac…” (The Wire)
”… musical cross fertilisation knows no boundaries, taking in Latin, Samba, Jazz, Dub and Tronica.” (Wax)
”Con Ritmo is one mans quest against the jazz beast within us all.” (Breakin Point)
”Con Ritmo has all the proximity of a night club gently pulsating with the latin passion for rhythm inflexed here with a potent combo of jazz dub electronica.” (The Shetland Post)
”Remember all that rhythmotricknological programming dexterity that DrumnBassheads always used to blab on about ? This is the music they have never had the imagination they were talking about.” (Sleaze Nation)
”Writers and critics will have run out of superlatives long before Friedman has run out of ideas.” (Overload)
”The sound of innovators getting sweaty, messy and trippy, somewhere beyond the jungle.” (THE FACE)
”On Con Ritmo Friedmann has succeeded in showing his many musical facets.” (www.etronik.com)
”Latin influenced dub; via Cuba from a schizophrenic German who thinks he’s a being from outside the Milky Way?Reach for the shot glasses, Friedman’s round for a session.” (Kingsley Marshall)
”It’s incredibly well-crafted. This is live music, which isn’t live.” (Dan Hill)
”Theres a precisionto even the loosest grooves that cant be had with human players. But none of this works againstthe brilliance of CON RITMO, which also ventures into digital-age lounge music.”(Gil Gershman)
”Funny, Funky, and more than a little silly, Con Ritmo is largely enjoyable.”(freq.org.uk)
”There’s a sheen of simulacra about the whole thing, which is actually very attractive, not least because it’s very funky and seems to be audibly winking at you the whole time.” (review by Dan Hill)
”Con Ritmo captures the subtleties and complexities of a live performance without descending into mere digital imitation. Friedman likes to play with notions of live, sampled and programmed material, even down to the addition of crowd noise between tracks, together with mumbled introductions by the’musicians’, but he also uses the capabilites of digital technology to produce edits, breaks and rhythmic matrices that even Tony Williams might think twice about attempting.(…) At the other end of the complexity scale, ‘Escape the Night’ works a virulently infectious Headhunters meets Can groove which builds under a blanket of cloudy Rhodes chords, digital groans and cheesy analogue synthetics. As they say, if this one doesn’t move you, better check yourself for a pulse. Friedman’s grasp of texture, space and dynamic is incredible here – there’s no clutter, nothing extraneous. The eleven minutes plus of ‘Das Wesen aus der Milchstrasse’ relocates ‘Black Market’ era Weather Report in the outer reaches of the known galaxy, with Atom (Friedman’s partner in Flanger) delivering an echo drenched, zonked moog solo which suggests how Joe Zawinul might perform under extremely strong hallucinogens. Light years ahead of the lazy appropriation and quantised rhythmic tedium (or to quote from the nonplace site, ‘manky MIDI miserabilism’) that dominates computer based music in general, this is witty, positive and intelligent stuff. Don’t file under triphop.” (Peter Marsh)
”Friedmanns computer craft is almost invisible on most cuts, well hidden by Joseph Suchys superb guitar work. But you can be sure that sampling software is responsible for the vibraphones, feisty horns, and intricate cut-and-paste conga breaks that bring Latin-jazz fantasiaslike “Escape the Night,” “Destination Unknown,” and “Demolition Derby” to life. Upon scrutiny, the iridescent pitch and sheen of the musical elements betrays DSP tweaking, and theres a precisionto even the loosest grooves that can’t be had with human players. But none of this works againstthe brilliance of CON RITMO, which also ventures into digital-age lounge music (“Das Wesen aus der Milchstrasse”, featuring an astonishing Moog solo by Atom) and the digi-dubscape that Friedmann has charted as Nonplace Urban Field (“Platin Tundra”). (Gil Gershman)