ALL MUSIC GUIDE - VoizNoiz 1

The strength of this fascinating found-sound pastiche will be enough to send fans of musique concrete, advanced turntablism, and trip-hop scouring the import bins. Most of the material that comprises these 20 tracks comes from field recordings of human voices speaking, singing, declaiming, and arguing, all of them reportedly made in the streets, buildings, and train stations of Holland and Yemen. The recordings are cut up and pasted together in sometimes eerie and frequently downright funky ways: the result sometimes sounds like a collaboration between Jon Hassell and African Head Charge (as on the danceable "Do Something About It" and the even more Hassell-ish "Sorokin Blues") and sometimes like a cross between Tricky and the Residents (as on the darkly funky and melodically quirky "Chickensoap). On "Where?" the snippets of speaking and singing are arranged by pitch, and the result is a sort of techno version of hocketing; it's an example of medieval technique meeting 21st century technology, and the result is wonderful. This is an exquisite album by an artist who deserves much wider recognition.

Rick Anderson.



KORTEX Electronica - VoizNoiz 1 :

VoizNoiz c'est avant tout, des collages sonores mélodiques et urbains. C'est aussi Michel Banabila et une fantastique collaboration de musiciens de Rotterdam. L'ensemble ainsi crée s'aventure dans des territoires voisinants l'Acid Jazz, le trip hop et la peinture sonore abstraite. VoizNoiz c'est un film qui défile dans notre tête : l'ambiance cinématographique propagée par les différentes pièces de l'album s'impose à notre esprit et nous fait voyager un peu partout à travers le monde à l'aide d'un fond musical riche doublé de différents échantillons hétéroclites. Chaque mouvement est pourtant bien clair, et on peut facilement associer les pièces à tel ou tel événement fictif. VoizNoiz est un album diversifié qui bénéficie pourtant d'un solide fil conducteur qui permet à l'auditeur de ne pas se perdre au sein des myriades de sonorités exploitées par Michel Banabila et ses copains. Une belle et amusante expérience auditive.

Yanik Trudeau



ALTERNATIVE PRESS - VoizNoiz 1 :

Post modern assemblage of found sounds and vocal fragments. Sound collage can often be more conceptually interesting than listenable. Michel Banabila handily avoids this on the unclassifiable VoizNoiz. He uses location recordings from Holland and Yemen, along with live guitar, voices, bass and percussion to construct what he calls "urban sound scapes". Banabila assembles riffs from found-sound and vocal fragments into oddly conversational grooves. This approach recalls Coil, but without their inward-looking menace. VoizNoiz is every bit as post-modern as the work of today's DSP-terrorists, but it's a much easier listen.

Kent Williams.



COOL AND STRANGE MUSIC - VoizNoiz 1 :

Holland's Michel Banabila is one of those rare musicians who can take an avant-garde conception and turn it into a highly entertaining work of art. VoizNoiz is a masterpiece of found sounds and voices used rhythmically and humorously with obvious nods to Jean Michel Jarre's classic collaboration with Laurie Anderson, Zoolook, without the dark psychological edge, and Coil, without the homo-erotic magick. VoizNoiz is an update of the genre into contemporary trip-hop, with touches of exotica and Asian house music. There is a slight Carribean edge in some parts, but the jack-hammer editing of the sound montage is so intense that by the time one is able to digest an influence, it has been replaced by something completely different. Think of a tropical island version of Tipsy, only more cartoony (which is no surprise as the executive producer is the legendary animator Gabor Csupo.) Though the CD is separated into 20 different tracks, I defy anyone to figure out which one is which without looking at the track indicator. It's like a lovingly unified vision of schizophrenia done Tex Avery style.

Wilhelm Murg



POSITIVELY YEAH YEAH - VoizNoiz 1 :

My pick for the week is VoizNoiz: Urban Sound Scapes, an adventurous sound collage from sound artisan Michel Banabila and his Rotterdam collaborative in Holland. This wet, funky electronica-based watercolor is simply dripping with melodic tones, samples and snippets, reminiscent of Jean Michel Jarre's Zoolook masterpiece from 1977. Just as Jarre sampled animal noises and 25 spoken languages for the Cubist threads of his electric growl, Banabila has similarly collected found sounds recorded on the streets and inside the stations of Yemen and Holland. The treated languages and calliope circles roll and undulate into a mesmerizing Trip Hop listening experience that's rather cinematic, tipping its European hat fondly to Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life In The Bush of Ghosts and Yellow Magic Orchestra, Laurie Anderson, and Little Wolf. This new release, from the wonderfully quirky Tone Casualties label, is worth searching for and highly recommended.

John M. James.




DJ : Milos came by ( Pork 12# EP )

Following the release of his album 'Voiznoiz' last autumn, Banabila returnes with 'Milos Came By', the first single to be taken from the album. As well as the beautiful ethnic tinged downbeat opening track, there's also Scruff-esque breaks, and on the flip you'll find two brand new tracks, the genre-defying 'Speak' and haunting 'Voices From a Secret World'.Very nice and quite a trip.

DJ Pathaan



OUTBURN MAGAZINE - VoizNoiz 1 :

Eclectic, trip-hop and jazzy experiments: VoizNoiz: Urban Soundscapes is an eclectic and unusual collection of twenty grooving experimental songs. Leader and visionary, Michel Banabila, is joined by an eight piece Rotterdam musicians collective who collaborate on many of the tracks. The foundation for the songs are voices recorded from the streets and buildings in Rotterdam, Holland and Yemen. Then the samples are warped, compartmentalized, and united with unusual sounds, random rhythms, and laid back beats and melodies. The results are exotic ethnic sounds merged with modern urbanism in unexpected and pleasing ways. Never settling in one defined style, VoizNoiz: Urban Soundscapes takes many twists and turns, as on the experimental drum & bass on "Streets of SAM City," the slinky hip-hop beats with cool jazzy live attitude on "Adventures of Bob Baddoubah," and the Art of Noise-esque "Voiz Ill." Despite the wide variation of sounds explored, all the tracks work together to paint an interesting mosaic of warped vocals, pulsing beats, and warm grooves. Also, since most of the tracks clock in at under three minutes, the soundscapes never drag on beyond their welcome. At times quirky and others ultra hip, Banabila will take you on a completely enthralling trip that is worth revisiting on many occasions.

Octavia



ELECTROAGE - VoizNoiz 1 :

Twenty tracks of smoky and subdued jazz-tinged electronica and ambient, VoizNoiz mixes those predominant sounds with trip-hop, a bit of minimal reggae and techno, hip-hop and funk. In less than fifty minutes, Michel Banabila and a legion of musicians cram together as much modern urban music into twenty individual tracks, making nothing last much over three minutes in length. The moody ambient jazz of the opening Mono/Metro leads to a stark reggae-based Do Something About It! and then into a mutated funk Sorokin Blues. Voiz IV is filled with vague industrial chugging against a strangely thin guitar and a '70s television show feel. The urban soundscape is all about variety with a common thread, and Banabila and his associates parade proudly through the miasma, as Parade Bizarre so appropriately indicates in it's surreal carnival groaning. The casual stroll through the different faces of a bustling urban setting progresses with a leisurely pace, recording everything with a completely non-judgmental coolness, so the briefly weird Chickensoap can blissfully coexist with the quirky retro-pop of VoizIII and the chilled, otherworldly Where? with complete seamlessness. The urban landscape explored by Banabila and his Rotterdam collective seems a colourful netherworld of quixotic sounds, faces and rhythms, a modern wilderness of music, even somewhat tribal, as Ba-bylon and Azmignie suggest. VoizNoiz is a moody and multifaceted trip through the music of the modern urban world, and as such may not always be appealing, but sure enough to change in short order.

Phosphor.



EXCLAIM - VoizNoiz 1 :

Michel Banabila has been making fractured music for ten years in Rotterdam; combining beats with live instrumentation. There is an Arabic feel to some of the lead voices, whether they are synths played with Eastern scales or the occasional oud solo. This man obviously knows his way around the sampler, too. Banabila uses short sampled bursts for their tonal colour, rather than their content, to construct the bulk of his songs. He also knows how to successfully integrate live instruments into his mix, that is to make them an integral part of his ideas rather than leave them as solo instruments floating on top of dense electronics. You might think at this point that his music is dense and pretentious - it's not. He assembles humorously upbeat, almost poppy structures that seem all the more accessible for the sampled blurts. Even his slower tunes are punctuated by smile-inducing processed vocals. Voiznoiz isn't a beat dominated album, although regular rhythms predominate. It's always a pleasure to come across someone who can use fractured techniques and create accessible music from it. This could be why a company like Pork, known for their beats-and-beyond approach, was interested in releasing it. I wouldn't be sure who to recommend this to, but it's the kind of album that people would stop to listen to if they heard it at random.

David Dacks.



MUTE MAGAZINE - VoizNoiz 1 :

A disjointed melody of cut sounds, broken samples, and odd beats strung together with fishing line and hooks. Michel Banabila creates abstract sound collages of urban living complete with the hustle and bustle of traffic and chattering pedestrians. VoizNoiz makes you feel cramped in that crowded kind of way. "Do Something About It!" and "Adventures of Bob Badoubah" explain it all.

BG.



Dr. Wax Com - VoizNoiz 1 :

My fave actually, Banabila and his "Voiznoiz - urban sound scapes". Michel Banabila comes from Rotterdam (the biggest port in the world), the pluri-cultural town ever in north Europe. His music is a blend of hundreds of influences, beyond Downtempo, it's experimental, jazz! Just fabulous.Pork did a great job, because here you get a genuine artist that drives you in a wonderfull journey in electronic music.



Gonzo Circus - VoizNoiz 1 :

'With VoizNoiz, Banabila seems to have delivered his piece de resistance. With the help of many guests, he produced a thrilling soundtrack.'

Ax.



WAX MAGAZINE - VoizNoiz 1 :

A thoroughly engaging, amusing and charming debut from new Pork signing Michel Banabila. Slightly more random than your usual Pork output, but still retaining the essential ingredients, Banabila strings together 20 soothing skunk funk oddities that delight and bemuse in equal portions. Tender beats, oddball samples, live instrumentation and vocal snippets weave together to make a warming abstract picture, one of those which looks good whichever way you hang it.

SN .



MIXMAG - VoizNoiz 1 :

'I know little of this lot apart from the fact that they have put out a delightfully oddball record. I still haven't got my head round their LP. Isn't it nice when a record needs more than one listen ?'

Mr Osymyso.



µ-zik tip - VoizNoiz 1 :

Wer gerne auf exotischen Pfaden wandelt, all das sammelt, was andere gerne mit Kopfschutteln beiseite legen, sollt ganz schnell hier seine Zelt aufschlagen. Klingt wie eine Mischung aus Mr. µ-zik und TAL, konnte von der Art auch eine Fortsetzung zu Zoolook sein, ist aber das erste musikalische Lebenszeichen von Michel Banabila auf Pork. In diesen 50 Minuten zeigen seine 20 Tracks das Stimmenrauschen von jener Seite, wie wir es ahnlich auch von Laurie Anderson kennen. Banabila nimmt Stimmen, Gerausche, ganze Satze auseinander und fugt sie nur bruchstuckhaft zu einem neuen Klanggebilde zusammen. Klingt einfacher als es ist, denn diese Bruchstucke stellen oft einen wichtigen Teil des Grooves, des Rhythmus dar. Bei Banabila ist die Drumsektion nettes Beiwerk, mehr nicht. Nun scheint er obendrein auch ein recht sonniges Gemut zu haben, denn manchmal kann ich mich nicht einkriegen, weil der Track Geschichten erzahlt, die so schon wieder einzigartig genial sind. Schoner wie ein Comicstreifen und muß man einfach mal gehort haben... Am Stuck genossen betritt man eine total skurrile Welt, wo nichts mehr so ist, wie man es sonst gewohnt ist. Es gibt aber auch Passagen, wo man sich die Haare rauft, weil Michel Banabila sich damit nur sehr kurz abgibt, die aber vom Groove total abgehen. Vielleicht ist es aber das, was die Sucht an diesem Album ausmacht. Ausnahme ist >>Voiz III<<, wo er sich mal langer aufhalt. Aber was heißt hier schon "lang"... Wie dem auch sei, das Album gehort zur Kategorie "ich druck dich".

Ru.




NEURAL on line - VoizNoiz 1 :

Etnica ritmica, suoni delle strade, voci messi a tempo coordinato, e cori disegnati col sampler che si ritagliano un importante spazio audibile nello stile proprietario della band. Pause e percussioni chiare e leggere, legate in un continuum omogeneo, danno il giusto peso agli andirivieni melodici spezzettati da radioline di quarant'anni fa. L'ideale percorso fra le anime che prestano i loro squilli vocali viene accelerato e rallentato, come se si entrasse di straforo in diversi appartamenti privati di una città in momenti diversi di altrettanti giorni.



PITCHFORKMEDIA - Pork's Dub Plates From The Lamp :

... It would be a perfect conclusion to this compilation, had the Pork folks not discovered Banabila and flourished this remarkable disc with "Mono/Metro," a holler-sampling-and-contorting fragment of genius that Moby would stomp Fairfield County, Connecticut into the subsoil for.

Paul Cooper.



BARCODE website - VoizNoiz 1 :

The first solo album from Michel Banabila is an interesting one to say the least. Taking samples from the streets and buildings of Rotterdam and integrating them into his own diverse musical soundscapes he delivers a personal voyage deserving of quite some merit. 'Milos Came By' provides a curiously skilfull corssbreeding of sampled voice snaps and funky trip-hop style beats while the metal beat of 'Voiz III' provides a solid backdrop for the stylised synth tones that effectively lead the listener into a variety of hallucinatory destinations. Elsewhere, 'Streets Of SAM City' provides a bustling, sample-smacking commentary through sound on urban life. Despite having 20 tracks, none lasting much more than three minutes the album curiously manages to remain both cohesive and varied but not consistently enjoyable enough to reach out and really grab you. I am often left wondering exactly where 'Urban Sound Scapes' will find it's audience. For all it's divergent vocal experimentalism it doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, which could be construed as the highest testament you could make to an undoubted highly creative individual like Banabila.




TOXIC FLYER FANZINE - VoizNoiz 1 :

Electronica with that trip hop injection with a world beat of samples and flavors that would probably make a great soundtrack or movie back drop.

BW.



GONZO CIRCUS - 'Cards on the table' / Banabila,Vennik & Bobby (Staalplaat) :

Op 'Cards on the table' gooien drie kaartspelers hun getapete geluidstroeven op tafel. Via een harddisc en het toeval (schudden van het kaartspel) worden alle klanken aan elkaar geplakt. Op negentien minuten passeren achtentwintig tracks de revue ; van fragmenten uit tv-series , over noise tot jungle beats. Door jouw cd-speler vakkundig te programmeren kan je zelf langere tracks of collages maken. Een meer avontuurlijke optie is de random mode. Trouw aan het thema is de cd verpakt in een tafellaken en natuurlijk bevat het pakket ook een speelkaart. Niet alle kaarters zijn even enthousiast over Cards on the table ; toen ik ermee kwam aanzetten op de plaatselijke 'Grote Kippen-en-Konijnenbelotting', werd ik hardhandig aan de deur gezet !

(P.V.)



VITAL Weekly 272 - 'Cards on the table'
( miniCD by Staalplaat ) Banabila,Vennik & Bobby :

Whatever can be shuffled, will be shuffled. That must be the philosophy behind this 3" CD entitled "Cards on the table". For the creation of this rather bizarre conceptual work, the trio uses a deck of playing cards to decide when and how the sampled contributions will be combined. The entire work is based on samples of a wide range of styles including jazz, old avantgarde classic, musique concrete, kitsch, dot matrix printer-symphonies and ethno-electronics just to name a few of the expressions that awaits the listener. The overall surface has an exciting film noir-atmosphere based on slow groovy jazz melted into the shuffled sample-inferno. Divided into 28 tracks, the 18 minutes long work is fragmented into small pieces. Unnecessary to say: Random play for optimum shuffle!
(NMP)



FRET : michel banabila, hannes vennik en bobby -
'Cards On The Table' (mini-CD / Staalplaat STCD 153) :

Vorig jaar kreeg het album Voiznoiz van Michel Banabila een internationale re-release. De vakkundige en minutieuze electronische composities gebaseerd op samples opgenomen in het kosmopolitische Rotterdam vormen een groot contrast met de schetsmatige verzameling ritmes en geluiden op deze Staalplaat-uitgave die toetsenist/producer Banabila maakte samen met Hannes Vennik en een zekere Bobby. Stoffig klinkende loops aangevuld met snippers muziek uit allerhande genres, filmstemmen en ruizige noise zijn opgeknipt in 28 fragmenten die volgens het hoesje het beste tot hun recht komen in shuffle-play. Zelfs zonder shuffle heeft deze experimentele muziek iets stuurloos. In tegenstelling tot Voiznoiz ontgaat de achterliggende gedachte van Cards On The Table me enigszins, maar de onrust en het onvoorspelbare houden wel de volle 18+ minuten de aandacht vast. GV.



MUSIC AND MEDIA - ARHIL : with Bahia El Idrissi :

"One of the most succesfull cultural collisions for some considerable time"



LEGENDSMAGAZINE : VoizNoiz 1

From Rotterdam, Holland comes a very unusual album from Michel Banabila, with the assistance of an 8-person musical collective. What Banabila has done here is take samples of street sounds from Rotterdam and Sana'a, Yemen, and make sonic collages of them, Art of Noise style. This is one of the most stylistically eclectic albums this reviewer has seen recently, with strong jazz and trip hop elements. Here's a look at the tracks: 'Mono/metro' - Starts out very low key, cool jazz with a slow beat. Banabila uses vocal samples as his instruments. This track reminds me of the Art of Noise and, to a lesser degree, Yello. Interspersed with the voices are a piano, organ, and some random electronic sounds. 'Do something about it!' - This one is definitely more like Yello, with a funkier beat and lots of toms. 'Sorokin blues' - This is, as it says, a blues track, albeit a rather odd and disjointed one. Elements here resonate of Tom Waits and Primus. 'Voiz IV' - Here's a more upbeat, chunky track with something of an open road vibe. The later part of the track has an amusingly sprung rhythm that is tough to follow for a bit, but it resolves back into the original theme. Some guitars here. 'Parade Bizarre' - This one's a clunking, odd-keyed march, with elements reminding this reviewer of zydeco. 'Milos came by' - It's a trip hop track with sitar and a funky breakbeat, complete with scratching and electro elements. There's even a bit of Morrocan singing here. 'Chickensoap' - This oddly angular track trudges along with chicken and bubble popping noises. 'Voiz III'- More angular weirdness again, with a syncopated beat. This one's a bit smoother than the other Voiz. String sounds are interspersed here and there. 'Where?' - This is a very slow, minimalist track, rather soothing in a quietly plunking way. It's reminiscent of some traditional Japanese music. 'Urban scapes' - This one has a very measured beat, the voices being more prominent here than in most of the other tracks. Urban scapes rather reminds me of some of the German expressionist film soundtracks I've heard. 'Streets of SAM City' - An extremely fast, nonstandard beat drives this one; there are overtones here of anime soundtracks or the sort of music one finds in conjunction with time lapse films of city streets. There's also a definite film noir vibe here. 'Adventures of Bob Badoubah' - Another jazzy one, the sort of thing one would expect to be played in a tiki lounge. There's also a tinge of spy-movie soundtrack here as well. 'Hosanna' - This track is a waltz with definite Middle East vibes. The vox in here are rather quiet, and almost, but not quite, overshadowed by the instruments. 'Da boubelli' - This one resonates with urban cool jazz. The track is rather slow and languid, almost liquid in places. 'Suma mix' - Starting out with a hollow, warm, and almost subterranean vibe, it winds up with a bit of virtual Eurodisco. 'Ba-bylon' - This one's a humming babble of voices, rising and falling. 'Azmignie' - Here's a track that sounds in turns like religious chanting, gargling, and vocoded gurgles. The backing music is a syncopated march tempo. 'Traffic' - This is a sonic montage arranged to simulate the sounds of street traffic. 'New circles' - Tribal drumming, orchestral jazz passages, fuzz electronics and resonant voice samples make this measured-pace track hum with activity. 'Wonderful mistakes' - Here's a pulsing, fluttering, mostly electronic track that has the feel of slowly turning stations on a radio dial. This is definitely one of the most interesting albums I've heard in quite a while, and has a lot of crossover potential as the tracks here are not just jumbles of random sound, but are quite listenable as standalone tracks rather than just curiosities. Heck, most of them are danceable as well. In all senses, this is a good showing from Tone Casualties. If you're looking for something a little different, this is an excellent piece of work and worth a listen.

Wilde


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