Doubtless the duo would blanch if pigeonholed with labels like “dark,” “hauntological,” “drone” or “witch house” but there’s no denying their penchant for the arcane and unsettling, whether through bleak soundscapes Andy Votel’s supernatural and apothecary artwork or the archival, low budget exploitation movie images that accompany their live performances. What is it about Demdike [...]
Articles By: James Knapman
The Caretaker :: Patience (After Sebald) (History Always Favours The Winners)
Patience (After Sebald) may well appeal to a different audience than An empty bliss beyond this world, or Persistent Repetition of Phrases, so if you didn’t quite get previous offerings it is well worth investigating this one, a sterling addition to the canon that continues The Caretaker’s trend of applying his formula in new ways. [...]
Pete Swanson :: Man With Potential (Type)
It’s not often one can legitimately use the word “unique” to describe a new album these days, but in the case of the mind-bending Man With Potential, having literally heard nothing quite like it before or since, the term is particularly apposite. The Type imprint entered a somewhat frenzied period of activity towards the end [...]
Perispirit :: Spiritual Church Movement (Digitalis)
For a record as borderline obliterated as this there’s a strange warmth that envelops Spiritual Church Movement, much like the sable trimming surrounding the oddly mechanical looking and richly ornamented gold filigree of the Russian Tsar’s skullcap on the front cover. [Release page] What exactly are the ingredients that work together to create a great noise [...]
Scissors and Sellotape :: …For The Tired And Ill At Ease… (Fac-ture)
In the case of …For The Tired And Ill At Ease… it is the splicing and dicing of approximately one hour of material recorded in a three hour visit to St. Mary’s Church in Thornbury, Melbourne. Heidi Elva played piano (and apparently recognized none of her performance in the final work), as did McCaffrey, as [...]
Hyboid :: Where Androids Come to Die (Astro Chicken)
The references that Astro Chicken pile into almost every release ensure that the majority of their output is most appreciated by those of a certain age and/or love of bedroom gaming nostalgia, and though Where Androids Come to Die has more serious overtones, the signature aesthetic is still there. The latest release on the German Astro [...]
Variant :: Falling Stars (echospace [detroit])
![Variant :: Falling Stars (echospace [detroit])](http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/themes/yamidoo_pro/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/variant-fallingstars_feat.jpg&w=170&zc=1)
Twenty-five minutes in and the feedback blossom and blooming strings dissipate, leaving the calmer swell of the delicate pads and sea-salt spray, but very soon the bite of a chill wind begins to whistle alongside the distant, repeated clang of vast machinery to even greater hypnotic and panoramic effect. Way back in late 2008, echospace [...]
Charlatan :: Triangles (Digitalis)
Triangles is just an honest to goodness, straight-up electronic record crafted with an ear for layered melody and sparkling effects-work that conjures atmospheres so sublimely heady and uplifting the experience is borderline heavenly. [Release page] The last few years have seen a prodigious influx of new releases mining synthwave and analogue synthesizer worship, many on new labels [...]
Sternrekorder :: Weissensee (Astro Chicken)
A penchant for insanely bouncy melodies, tonally sweet analogue keyboard sounds, straightforward, clipped percussion and occasional vocals steer Weisensee into distinctly Kraftwerkien territory. [Purchase] In 2011, the eccentric, early eighties and science fiction obsessed, Astro Chicken imprint followed up Risk Risk’s superlative This Is 1983 with two mini-LPs, the first of which is this quaint and [...]
Sense :: Selected Moments Volume 1 (Psychonavigation)
Raisbeck delivers track after track of meticulously produced and emotionally charged mood music of the highest calibre that both recalls but never imitates a myriad of musicians with intoxicating nostalgic touches. There were two albums released in 2011 that vividly and effortlessly spanned and embodied two discrete eras of modern electronic music, whilst retaining their [...]
Hauschka :: Youyoume (Serein)
Amazingly, most of the sounds you hear are indeed still emanating from Hauschka’s inspirationally prepared piano, so ingeniously employed to conjure imagery and effortlessly shift moods, tempo and colour. [Release page] Serein’s Seasons 2011 series of ten-inch vinyl EPs comes to a close with Hauschka‘s thee-track Youyoume and my word, talk about saving the best [...]
Leyland Kirby :: Eager to tear apart the stars (History Always Favours The Winners)
To pass on this essential release would be a serious error. It may be desperately melancholy but the breathtaking and often heart-stopping compositions can transcend the mood of the listener. [Release page] Over the last two years, James Kirby has been releasing three discrete streams of music: the brain addled, ballroom stream of consciousness albums [...]
TYPE :: 3View 2011.11 (Hallowe’en special)
Three releases in as many weeks after a comparatively frugal 2011 release schedule so close to the witching time implies otherwise. So turn off those dreadful remakes of already dreadful Hallowe’en horror bores and tune in to something genuinely creepy. (November 2011) And so the corpse of another Hallowe’en lies broken and bloodied atop of [...]
V/A :: Emerging Organisms 4 (Tympanik Audio)
Emerging Organisms Vol 4 breaks the boundaries of previous entries in the series, reflecting both the increased diversity of the label’s output and the compounding production polish and compositional complexity that the contributing artists gain with each new release. [Release page] Another year, another array of emerging organisms appear on Tympanik Audio‘s annual compilation series. [...]
Plaid :: Scintilli (Warp)
Plaid have placed extreme effort into honing electronic sounds so that they have an acoustic feel, creating a divine meeting in the middle where one never overpowers the other. Plaudits must also go to Ed and Andy’s mission to avoid excessive and unnecessary loudness for the sake of creating impact as the album progresses. [Release [...]
PLAID :: Building on human errors
2011 heralds the eagerly anticipated return of Plaid with their stunning new album Scintilli. Andy Turner and Ed Handley took a moment to speak with James Knapman about the inception of their latest collection of creative sparks. (September 2011) Just as 2010 saw the return of Warp Records heavy hitters Autechre with Oversteps and Move [...]
Ex_Tension :: Desert (Tympanik Audio)
The entire EP scans like the soundtrack to a full-on military operation and the introduction to “Desert” whilst perhaps a little lengthy, sets the scene brilliantly. Juddering bass pulses, scorched pads, the electronic tones of scanning equipment and the occasional intrusion of a tortured, twisted screech runs for a good eight minutes before anything approaching [...]
Nest :: Body Pilot (Serein)
It’s good to know that the Nest project is still going strong and Body Pilot is an exemplary collection of gorgeously crafted gaseous ambient excursions. [Release page] It’s probably fair to say that Body Pilot is the most eagerly anticipated of the Serein imprint’s 2011 Seasons series of ten-inch EP’s. It is the third release [...]
Biosphere :: N-Plants (Touch)
Typically situated on or near the shores of Japan, frequently adjacent to or in the shadow of a hill or craggy land mass, Jenssen has managed to capture perfectly the slightly sinister, otherworldly stillness of these seemingly abandoned or silent sites and structures. [Release page] It’s been just shy of five years since the jazz-flecked Dropsonde [...]
Kangding Ray :: OR (Raster-Noton)
OR gives the ears a thorough pummeling across its eleven relentless bass-music tone-poems, interrupted only briefly by morsels of polished ambience or skewed and bent android like voices. Like most Raster-Noton releases, you’ll need to concentrate on OR to get the most out of it, otherwise it becomes a rather homogeneous smear. [Raster-Noton Shop] It [...]
Jürgen Müller :: Science of the Sea (Digitalis)
There’s a Wes Anderson style quirkiness about Science of the Sea that places it somewhere between Jaques Cousteau and Steve Zissou, an era spanning sound that gently sways from one end of the spectrum to another… an active deep-sea vent from which pours an endless stream of bubbling synths, fizzling effects and swaying aquatic ambience that [...]
Dynamophone :: 3View 2011.9
Since the release of Seven Saturday’s album in April of this year, San Francisco-based Dynamophone imprint has been quiet. A possible reason for that has just now become clear as they re-emerge with a beautifully designed new website, completely overhauled and fully updated with a more complete and detailed discography, artist roster and a slew [...]
Stendeck :: Scintilla (Tympanik Audio)
At seventeen tracks Scintilla is quite the epic journey, another of those consistent Tympanik Audio releases that demand a straight-through listen, with loving care lavished upon all aspects of the production. [Release page] Sonnambula – Stendeck‘s last album released on Tympanik Audio back in 2009 – was something of a reference release for the label [...]
The Caretaker :: An Empty Bliss This World (History Always Favours The Winners)
As a consequence of being not quite hauntological, not quite classical or ballroom, not quite identifiably anything, An Empty Bliss Beyond This World is such an inscrutable work that its charms are in danger of eluding many. [Listen | Purchase] After an approximately one year silence that set in after the re-issue of The Caretaker’s critically [...]
Donato Wharton :: A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark (Serein)
A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark describes vast open spaces and seemingly endless vistas, but always viewed at long distance within safe, isolated or enclosed spaces. You can sense the chill from a place of warmth, view the clutter of nature within a shell of diamond cut precision and see the beauty of harsh open [...]
Miasmah :: 3View 2011.7
There aren’t a great many independent record labels that have successfully released music as willfully weird and wonderful as Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah Recordings, which continues to perplex and disorient with its diverse array of musical oddities. Interestingly, the debut compilation release Silva aside, the label began life largely by releasing post classical records with delicate [...]