Moments with Mauro: Isabelle A - 'Komen en gaan' (2008)

Moments with Mauro: Mauro Antonio Pawlowski - 'No scene' (2008)

From the Untertanz album.

Capsule review: Kapotski: Kapotski international shopdrop record tracking system (2008)

Lovely spacious sound on this LP of edited highlights from two improvised concerts in 2006, Kapotski curating a line-up of guests (side A: Jean-Marie Aerts, Isolde Lasoen; side B: Mauro Pawlowski, Steven De Bruyn) who met on stage. Like walking around in a cubist painting. Abstract, but it feels good to wander around in.

Capsule review: Mauro Antonio Pawlowski - Untertanz (2008)

If Antonio is Mauro's solo avant garde manifestation, then this is his pop album. But... because of its diversity in sounds and modes, its directness, its popmusic quotatins, not because it's filled with songs. There are none. This is on an abstract plain. A cover of Big Star's 'Thirteen' so dmeented the older Alex Chilton would have approved. On the whole something of a definitive statement for Antonio.

Capsule review: Possessed factory - Vol. III (2008)

Disembodied sketches, 30 in 45 minutes. They're all untitled. I would've liked to see their titles for these sketches. Or at least some signpoints. Footnotes, even. It intrigues, but I remain undecided.

Capsule review: dEUS - Vantage point (2008)

In retrospect it's should've been a new band, one built on Alan Gevaert/Mauro Pawlowski grooves and Tom Barman's romantic ballads. A partnership of equals. The dEUS tag confused, not what the public had come to expect. The creators pulled in their tails and started working for the brand. Approach without preconceptions and hear a barrel full of buzzing singles.

Capsule review: Club moral - Felix culpa (2008)

Art intellectuals lose all inhibitions. Go for primal gut feelings. It's a rotten world out there and inside of us. (Two long explorations called 'I'm a monster').

Capsule review: Parallels - Arabia in blue (2008)

Ladies & gentlemen, it's audio vérité. A single 54 minute piece. Starts with 20 minutes of intrepid percussion recorded in a large factory hall or art loft. Far off someone is dismantling an electric guitar while plugged in. Then minutes of silence. What are they doing? Ah, they've rolled in an upright piano and are trying to figure out how it works. Later the sounds of droning insects? And... curtain.
How open is your mind?

Capsule review: Othin spake - Child of deception and skill (2008)

Othin Spake's music sounds good in 2019. I return to it often and it's growing on me, losing its prohibitive 'free noise' connotations along the way. They set strong moods, raw disquiet to tender beauty. Still recorded live, but you can hardly tell anymore. Some Teo Macero is editing the hell out of the raw improvisations into -not quite, but not too far off- compositions.
Fans of '90s post-rock (when post meant adventure) should find much to treasure.

Moments with Mauro - 'Grown savage' (2008)

Early solo acoustic rendition of a song which would end up on the Grown Savage vinyl EP in 2012.