There’s a wonderful variety across the album, of established artists and new names, of musical styles and ideas. Turn a corner and you’re listening to Electro, next it’s mutating Acid, next its Industrial Ambience, next House. There is an unbelievable spread of sounds across Urbi Et Orbi III, but without the album becoming cluttered or [...]
Category: "Headlines"
V/A :: Air Texture Volume I (Air Texture)
Separately, two engulfing, flowing narratives. Perhaps Thomas’ is a shade darker, a bit nautical, while van Wey swoops over dry land through partly-cloudy skies. Presented together, Air Texture‘s tandem format provides the opportunity to compare the arrangement preferences of two distinct minds, but without any kind of crossover, overlap or explicit connection, only makes perfectly [...]
Ghostek :: Easy Changes EP (Shipwrec)
Using techniques such as warm synths, white noise, haunting and ghostly vocals, as well as a variety of bass/dubstep contrasts, a dark moody soundscape is beautifully created. Ghostek’s latest EP, Easy Changes, is a strong album with four tracks, each able to stand on its own as an individual piece of music yet come together [...]
Burial :: Kindred EP (Hyperdub)
Everything flows exactly as it should and, in an age dominated by throwaway digital singles, it’s pleasing to find out that there are still artists out there who really do think about the collective whole as a world unto itself. There’s always the worry that self-indulgence has taken over completely when you start seeing 12-minute [...]
Bruno Sanfilippo & Max Corbacho :: Bioma (ad21)
With the bell, bowl and chime buttons on their various Korg synthesizers, the duo replant the familiar Spanish countryside with even richer botany, humidifying the air and creating a colourful imaginarium under the leafy canopy. From the midst of a conference of birds taking place high among the tree tops falls a single, unremarkable feather [...]
Materia :: Komatiite EP (Slime)
Tight drums, deep bass, melodic and harmonic mastery wrapped up in intricate and evolving atmospheres and textures. Swedish born Bristol producer Materia has worn a lot of hats during his years producing music—which incidentally number quite a few now—from Drum and Bass to Tech House, and more recent forays into the steadily deepening black hole [...]
Kemek :: Ultimately Always Remixes (Architects + Heroes)
Five alterations retaining the original’s translucent dynamic leaves Kemek in a good space—quite literally—filled with crossing wires, microscopic shifting and breezy ambience. Referred to as UA2, Kemek receives remix treatments based on his 2011 EP of the same title. Five alterations retaining the original’s translucent dynamic leaves Kemek in a good space—quite literally—filled with crossing [...]
Tatsuro Kojima :: 16g (Audiobulb)
For 16g has sharp corners, razor-thin edges and taut wires that require some soft undergrowth. It spends much of its time slicing through the air at a relatively high frequency, though Kojima exercises keen restraint. Tatsuro Kojima has been preparing his debut album for over two years, during which time he has also been busy [...]
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 [...]
Johnny Jitters :: Closure EP (Aud-Art)
Johnny Jitters and fellow cohorts take Closure into skewed directions—offering downtempo frequencies bridged across atmospheric rapids that are warm, sincere and heartfelt. Glitch has taken on its own lifeform—displaying slivers of exp-electronics, classical, bass, ambience and digital-to-analog manipulation just as time and creativity shifts the genre into new and interesting paths. Johnny Jitters and fellow [...]
Markus Mehr :: In (Hidden Shoal)
The German experimental ambient artist marshals the same array of computer, synthesizers, guitars and distortion pedals used on his 2010 debut, Lava, and opens with a muffled grumble that might well be churning magma deep in the volcano. Markus Mehr is certainly leading with his chin by announcing a full-blown trilogy with only one full-length [...]