“Switzerland” (Used 21 times)

Plaistow are a Swiss post-jazz trio named after the Squarepusher song "Plaistow Flex Out," and with a song of their own titled "Steve Reich." Whether imagining new forms of techno, minimalism, post-rock/noise or improvised music, all Plaistow's recordings are realized organically with a drum kit, bass and piano.

The group met through improv and netaudio communities over five years, and now have several netlabel releases in their growing discography. The latest is on Insubordinations, a netlabel for whom Plaistow's drummer Cyril Bondi organizes concerts. Released this past month under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license, Lacrimosa consists of two fantastically expansive minimalist tracks, and is also available in a limited edition cdr / digisleeve.

Here's a video of Plaistow performing the title track to Lacrimosa live at Jazzdor in Strasbourg France:

FMA also hosts 2010's Insubordinations/Unit Records release The Crow, (featuring "Full CSS" below) and 2008's 12rec release Do You Feel Lucky (featuring "Steve Reich" below).

GB pka Gâteaux Blasters is the duo of Olmo (aka Uiutna) and Elia (aka Exteenager), from Geneva, Switzerland. GB is part of a collective of Swiss experimental/electronic/gurgley-folkpop artists, centered around the Das Andere Selbst and Zonoff netlabels, and the Wildrfid label. They describe their approach as "impro-ritual music" with "attitude (and sounds!) from lo-fi galaxies". What does that mean? Take a listen to their live set from Talk's Cheap, an extended meditative jam, to get a sense of what we're talkin about...

I first heard of GB through their slammin' Olympo 12'', the debut release from the Wildrfid label which turned out to be one of my favorite WFMU new bin discoveries last year. Browsing the Internet for more, I discovered Das Andere Selbst (German for "The Other Self"). This handcrafted Creative Commons netlabel is home to "Music from the Bedroom Allstars" like h., Anita, Mela Zeta, Donald Suck, Scappare di Casa and many more -- artists who converged on Switzerland from Italy, France, Germany to join forces with likeminded sonic travelers.

Following their live performance, GB did a DJ a set featuring music from a few of these artists. The set included a track by the mysterious Marshall Reptilos, a pal of the Sun City Girls who allegedly hordes tapes upon tapes of his own mindblowing recordings that have never been properly issued. You can check out the full DJ set here, and download a few of the tracks from the FMA (below).

Elia and Olmo also left me with The Wild Tape, a cassette artifact from Zonoff's Wild Party that went down in 2006. Listening to the tape, it's not exactly what I would call "Wild", but it is very good, ranging from mellow electronics to bizzarely danceable glitch, to heartbreaking folk tunes like this song by the artist "Amy" out of the UK. You can listen to the whole tape here.

For more sounds from the Bedroom Allstars check out LizB's feature from a couple months back, the Das Andere Selbst FMA page, dasandereselbst.org, zonoff.net, and wildrfid.net

I've been enjoying a number of artists from the Swiss Creative Commons label Das Andere Selbst lately: mellow, chirpy, gurgly, experimental pop with an oddball edge. My faves include Exteenager (Elia, who runs the DAS label/site), GB (pka Gateau Blasters, coming to the U.S. this Spring), and Mela Zeta (from Italy).

Related to the DAS label is Wildrfid, who put out some great limited-edition 12" records last year by GB, Uiutna, and Cancelled. Also affiliated is Zonoff, a site with plenty of Creative Commons MP3s and vids for the taking.

Check out the great track "Golosinas" by Mela Zeta below. The intro almost sounds like the opening notes to "These Boots Are Made For Walking."