- Granufunk :: Granufunk(Sonic360, MP3)
(05.20.05) Granufunk is the summation of Jacob Grain’s efforts at welding a marriage between the granular synthesis of tiny glitch and micro-symphonies to the delicious luxuriousness of downtempo. With vocals provided by Sonni Plankton (both as spoken word artist and wistful chanteuse), Grain makes organic music that vibrates with a systolic groove. “Big City Lights” warps and weaves with tiny metallic instrumentation that is caught up in the passage of a thick and fuzzy low end while the brief “Plasma Grain Funky” puts an organ and a limping breakbeat into a static-laced echo chamber to work out their differences. The piano and violins of “Das Klavier & ICH” are a melody that Moby might have been partial to a few records ago while Grain augments their winsome harmony with disjointed beats and a chorus of stringed instruments pretending to be water droplets.
Grain’s soft German drawl finds its way into “Der Himmel Von Hollywood” where a piano and a marimba play out a staged duet behind the melancholic crooner who can’t muster enough energy to sing his lyrics, opting instead to let the music communicate his ennui while he smokes a cigarette and contemplates the gentle delivery of what’s on his mind. “Lady Delay” staggers about the room as the keyboard swooshes over a lurching downtempo rhythm section. “Formantenfruehstueck” is as damaged as its title is unpronounceable. A keyboard melody tries to bring some cohesion to a field of damaged beats but they have been too splintered in grand IDM fashion to be repairable.
This is one of the strength’s of Granufunk’s work: the marriage of breakbeat to the downtempo vibe. Granufunk is lounge music for the relaxing beat junkie, jazz bar music for the head nodders who want some time off from the frenetic pace of drill ‘n’ bass or more savage breakbeat for something a little softer, a little lighter, yet still polyrhythmic. Granufuck is the type of music that makes you snap your fingers and spill your drink. Excellent.
- Littl Shyning Man :: Hart of the Wud(Sonic360, MP3)
Chris Haworth takes the premise of Russell Hoban’s futuristic folk tale Riddley Walker (the language of yesterday is fused into the culture of tomorrow) and layers it against a hip-hop/electronica production aesthetic, creating something both organic and otherworldly
with the brief Hart of the Wud. Acoustic guitar melodies lay down with squiggling electronic beats and tiny wind storms of noise while echoes of classical and medieval folk music wander through the shells of these tracks.“Thee Hart Shapeth Into a Fist” molds a skipping drum loop, Haworth’s acoustic guitar and a melody from Stravinsky’s The Rites of Spring into a cohesive shape, holding everything together with a scattering of glitch dust. “Knocternell” layers guitar parts — drones, tone melodies, archaic noises — into a stratified pillar of slowly evolving sound. “Battry Runnd Pianoforte” chimes and rings with Japanese wood percussion, bubbling notes that rise up in a tribal dance around a piano melody.
Littl Shyning Man capers in that same field as Four Tet and Manitoba (er, Caribou) — the wild meadowlands of folk-kissed electronic music. But, like the others, Haworth is more than just Pete Seeger with a rack of electronic gear. He’s crossing fences, listening to the world, and capturing it all on DAT. What comes out the other end is the vulnerable sound of a man making music with the rhythms of the world.
Granufunk and Hart of the Wud are out now on Sonic360.
- www.sonic360.com
- Granufunk Website
- Littl Shyning Man Website
