Review by Frans de Waard/Vital Weekly

NOISE OF COLOGNE 1 (CD by Mark e.V.)
Noise can be, of course, a lot of things. So whatever you assume of 'Noise Of Cologne', you might be entirely right or wrong. Its the city of Kompakt, A-Musik, and once of Staubgold, but perhaps more importantly, also the city where in the early 50s Stockhausen and Eimert composed the very first purely electronic pieces. Its in that tradition that we place this compilation. Berlin may be a vibrant city, but so is Cologne. Of the seventeen acts/names I recognized only a few: C. Schulz & F.X. Randomiz, Thomas Lehn/Marcus Schmickler and Frank Schulte. None of the other names ring any bell. The music is throughout not really the sort of noise which you sometimes find in these pages, as discussed by Jliat. No walls of feedback and distortion terror, or adolescent screams for sex and death. The music is indeed more along the lines of early electronic music such as in the pieces by Hans W. Koch, Volker Hennes, Frank Barknecht and Siegfried Koepf. From the world of improvisation we find Michael Beil, Manner Mit Motoren, Matthias Mainz while micro glitches from Schulte is lone cowboy. Maybe the only true noise is the duo Lehn/Schmickler and the short improvisation by Robert Vater and the best piece is the one that is entirely built from train sounds by Schulz/Randomiz - which makes that a very french piece - same time, other tradition. Throughout a nice compilation, and one where you can find lots of great new names. (FdW/Vital Weekly)