0702 Goh Lee Kwang:::: Good Vibrations

recorded by goh lee kwang at the STEIM, Amsterdam, May 2007.

editing & mastering by goh lee kwang 2007.
image by lau mun leng, design by herbal in house design team.
no pre-programing, no on-going effect, no post-overdub. no turntable.

(excerpt, vbr mp3)

Audio CD, 6 panels digipak
60 minutes+
Release date: November 2007
12 Euros + shipping order

Related resources:
Also by Goh Lee Kwang
Goh Lee Kwang: Vice Versa
Goh Lee Kwang: The Lost Testimony of Rashomon
Goh Lee Kwang: Hands
Goh Lee Kwang: Draw Sound

Review(s):
Heathen Harvest
This new CD from Malaysian maestro Goh Lee Kwang, Good Vibrations is a five-song buzz of one 15-minute, two 20 minute and two nine minute tracks that all slip into one another seamlessly.

It’s hard to figure out what exactly, if anything, Goh is trying to get across. My guess is that it was a labor of love, something he wanted to put out there that is so unique there’s nothing like it on the map. That is, unless you have a habit where you tune your radio to frequencies that are between stations and you get that static and noise, beeping, high-pitched sounds that, played loud enough, will pierce your ears.

According to his bio on his MySpace page, Goh focuses on “various possibilities of both natural sound and recorded sound, crossing the boundaries of digital and analog, electronic and acoustic, go[ing] beyond language, allowing audiences to experience the work directly and in their own personal way.” Besides dabbling in creating unusual and original sound works, Goh has also created sound installations, interactive sound & vision installations, single- and multi-channel videos, etc, not to mention soundtracks for various theater pieces, dance performances and scores for independent films as well.

You’ll probably have a hard time trying to find the multi-media pieces that Goh’s created if you live in the US because his multi-media works are most prominent in Asia as well as Europe.

Basically, Goh is a multi-talented, multi-media cat who has a vivid imagination, seeing as that’s where he spends a lot of time getting ideas and inspiration; if you’ve been lucky enough to see any of his live shows you’d understand more of what’s going on here. Most of the shows are done at Museums/Galleries around the world and each sensation is driven by or augmented by another - that is, the minimalist soundscapes, the video installations as well as the interactive shows he sets up with an audio/visual sensation to it. The venues at which Goh brings all these disparate ideas become realized are perfectly suited to the vibe(s) they evoke - in other words, his performances don’t belong in some football stadium or a smoky, raging club full of McFisters who just want to drink more beer and smash up everything. This is high-brow stuff and it may be too bad that one would have to go to a snobby Euro-Art-bar to check it out. Myself, I’d be hip to seeing one of his installations in Bangkok or Macau, exotic destinations that would bring to life Goh’s subconscious even more.

So, while you ponder Good Vibrations and are scratching your head, trying to figure it out, just close your eyes and think of hallucinogenic video loops and many colors flitting, bouncing off the walls and such.
- Blond Adonis

TOUCHING EXTREMES May 2008
The subtitle of the album is "solo improvisations with stereo DJ mixer". That says it all, more or less. The 70-minute duration is not a joke, either, for this is not your typical Toshi Nakamura or Sachiko M. No, Kwang privileges micro-drills, crackles, purrs, hums, buzzes, quirks and bleeps, handfuls of them copiously reproduced for the total length of the CD. Which brings me to a cold-blooded conclusion: this music is neither beautiful, nor ear-pleasing. It is what it is - anarchic experimental noise that can or cannot be appreciated. And that's how it should be: aesthetic implications must be left out of the door, and the fame of the recording facility (STEIM) indicates that the work was conceived in a serious frame of mind. What I usually prefer in similar occasions is putting headphones on and leaving the mass of impulses do their job almost subliminally, at not excessive volume while I'm doing something else. The pairing of "Good vibrations" and my blank stare at the TV screen at about 10 PM produced some nice moment of unconscious stimulation (and a little bit of tinnitus at the end). Having been realized with measurable honesty, this is an interesting disc, in spurts. Maybe cutting the program at half the time would have increased the incisiveness of the whole.
- Massimo Ricci

The Wires Feb 2008
For Good Vibrations, Malaysian electronic musician Goh Lee Kwang restrcted himself to use of a single DJ mixer with no input (ah, Toshimaru Nakamura, so much to answer for). He selected recordings made over the period of two years on the basic of how close they were to the unadorned sound produced by the mixer, allowing no overdubbing or signal processing. But this search for minimal purity only makes sense when space and silence is used as a counterpoint. 70 minutes of low-key electronic popping and spitting in itself has no meaning; it just came across as a technical catalogue of what his equipment does. Kwang has a vacabulary, but there's no language here.
- Keith Moline

VITAL WEEKLY number 601 week 46
For a moment, in the early parts of the first piece I thought Goh Lee Kwang had extended beyond his usual turntable and mixer feedback by adding skipping CDs, but it turned out the copy I have is a bit scratched. Too bad as that could have been a nice addition. When I studied the cover more closely, it seems that there is no turntable either, and Goh Lee Kwang just uses a stereo DJ mixer. According to his website, the material was recorded at six studio sessions (in Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Krems, Kuala Lumpur, London, Amsterdam) plus two concerts (Paris, Stuttgart), but the cover just says 'all tracks recorded in Steim, studio 1, Amsterdam. So what is right? Does it matter? Not really. Goh Lee Kwang uses lots and lots static cracks, feedback like sounds, in a collage like manner. It sounds like a turntable, I thought, but then every time I had to think 'oh, it isn't a turntable'. It was pretty decent stuff, but way too long to hold my interest. The five pieces last for about seventy minutes, and it wouldn't be a problem, but the variation isn't that much, so one could all too easily think it's the same track. Only the fifth piece is considerable louder than the rest, but if that is the 'variation' than I pass. Half of this would have been equally fine, me think, and it would still be a pretty decent release.
- Frans de Waard

Monsieur Delire July 2009
Goh Lee Kwang a enregistré ce disque au STEIM, le célèbre studio expérimental d’Amsterdam, où, j’imagine, il a probablement développé son instrument, le pupitre de mixage stéréo pour DJ. L’approche paraît semblable à celle de Toshimaru Nakamura et son pupitre de mixage sans entrée, soit l’amplification d’une absence de signal pour en faire un signal en boucle interne. Kwang travaille avec très peu de choses: sillements, chuintements, battements – on dirait de l’électronica glitch, en plus abstrait ou sculpté. Cette musique ne vient pas chercher. Elle étonne, elle questionne, mais elle n’émeut pas. Elle se prend comme une énigme à résoudre. Et la gravure est faite à volume si bas que la musique vous file littéralement entre les doigts.

Goh Lee Kwang recorded this album at STEIM, the famous experimental studio in Amsterdam, where he must have developed his instrument. His approach seem similar to Toshimaru Nakamura and his no-input mixing board, i.e. amplification of a lack of signal to turn it into an internal-loop signal. Kwang is working with very little material here: sines, white noise, flappings – it sounds like glitch electronica, though more abstracted or sculpted. His music doesn’t grab you. It surprises and questions, but it doesn’ move you. It begs to be approached as an enigma. And it’s been mastered so low that it literally eludes your attention.
- François Couture