In rotation for the past several weeks, this multi-view reveals the latest sonic landscape from 20 talented musicians. Plenty of brittle, glitch, abstract, noisy, mechanical and bass-infused sounds with releases by Abadir, Attraktta, Bojanek & Michalowski, Cathode Ray Tube, Faex Optim & PBS’73, Fayze, Fragile Balloon X Pan Pan, Geomatic, Nearfield, Qebo, Redox, Soramimi, Setter, SubtractiveLAD, UpliNk, Valance Drakes, and Vortex Count.
Abadir :: Clattered Tell EP (Kaer-Uiks)
A brisk and busy beauty made from exuberant digital tentacles of dust and debris, Clattered Tell offers 6-tracks that bring about a sense of timeless electrical flutter of the past. Glitch sheets smoothened by ambient washes, there are electro-chemical fissures spread about these audio workings that are blissful and broken. Emotive to the nth degree, slight melodies weave their way through, often rolled up into synaptic rhythms and bass-infused sound design. In all, Abadir manages to create a contemplative collection that carries a range of found-sound that is nothing short of encapsulating.
Attraktta :: Massive Irretrievable Data Loss (Touched Music)
The sweet sound of yesteryear, broken breaks, explosive techno extracts, and mind-bending rhythms, Attraktta’s limited edition Massive Irretrievable Data Loss CD is 9-tracks of slick geometric electronics. Each track manipulated to perfection, electro slices from the early 90s appear to bleed through the margins, and yet, Attraktta doesn’t conform or settle. Brightly lit, expertly crafted rhythms and bass whip across the spectrum with acidic waves and wide-angled drums. There’s just so much to discover on this release, from downtempo melodies buried in time, to bubbling ambient noodles lost in space, to exploratory modular shards, Massive Irretrievable Data Loss is an impacting album that breaks through a myriad of sub-genres and yet maintains its focus (even if a bit disjointed), from start to finish.
Bojanek & Michalowski :: Solid (N_Coded)
So much to digest, too little time to consume. 51-minutes of sublime, cascading and evocative ambience is distilled on Solid. Having worked together since 2010, the duo has found their sound, one that inhabits otherworldly spaces, and buried guitar ashes falling by the wayside. Solid conjures aural movements that bend and contort gracefully via vintage noise boxes carefully tuned for an exploratory experience. Jacaszek (Ghostly International) delivers a bubbling remix of the surreal sonic pillar that is “Figures,” and overall Solid is an overarching accomplishment, and an aptly titled album. Recommended for fans of early Fennesz, Tim Hecker, David Sylvian et al.
Cathode Ray Tube :: The Void And Other Structures (Component)
The ever-prolific Chang Terhune channels another plateaux with The Void And Other Structures, a highlight album that spans across 9-tracks of explosive, emotive, electronic deconstruction. Breaking through the industrial threshold, each piece delivers stretched out energetic activity. Mechanical and seemingly fueled by alien lifeforms, cold air travels through each piece. Chilled to the touch, about to implode and possibly even shatter due to its fragile nature, there are moments that could go on for an eternity—its hypnotic flow meant to infiltrate the subconscious. Drifting bass, broken melodic sheets, corrosive beats, and dislocated rhythms is where Cathode Ray Tube finds solace. The shattered synthesized elements, brittle and bumpy as they can be, deliver not only a myriad of extensive exploratory realms, but also discerning robotic moods that are at once hypnagogic.
Faex Optim & PBS’73 :: Poppy Tears EP (Magic Square)
Short and sweet, Wes MacDonald (Faex Optim) and Elijah Franks (PBS’73) can’t do any wrong be it together or on their own. Their collaboration release on Magic Square is a splendid mixture of downtempo—a blurring of the senses, surreal landscapes, and fragments of yesteryear. Four pieces transcending space and time, augmented drums and found-sounds, faded voices, and visions of childhood memories are the focal point for the digital imprint. With these two talented musicians behind this mysterious sonic smorgasbord, time becomes a figment of ones imagination. The music culled from fluid instrumental planes is meant for a calm listening environment, which allows Poppy Tears to open up as a pleasant sojourn through faraway mirrors reflecting visual sounds.
Fayze :: Fayze (Detroit Underground)
A proverbial fork in the road for Detroit Underground, having released Fayze’s work which dips into adventurous shoegaze electronics, here we see 10-tracks spread across a myriad of lovely instrumentation, emotional as ever, and yet with an air of exquisite production. Electrical slabs filter their way through the process with old-school charm, yet the whole package exudes a creative spark and curiosity for the unknown. Mysteries unfold along the way as Fayze is able to deliver an impacting slice of work that ventures into sun-soaked indie passages, yet maintains its exp-electronic exclamation mark.
Fragile Balloon X Pan Pan :: Vodena 111 EP (Numb Capsule)
The sounds of disjointed hip-hop, melodic downtempo, and exploratory electronics comes in the shape of the Vodena 111 EP by Fragile Balloon and Pan Pan. Here we see two artists doing what they do best, Fragile Balloon offers busted synth lines, vocal sample splashes, old-school drum’n bass, diffused breaks and hard rhythms, while Pan Pan flips it over with bent, distorted, and implosive tones buried in ashes of sample-based noise extracts and decomposed synthesizer funk. Perhaps the finest in terms of discombobulated electronics, fans of Global Goon, Gescom, and Team Doyobi should really take note.
Geomatic :: Control Agents (M-Tronic)
Geomatic returns with Control Agents for France-based M-Tronic. Charcoal ambience, leftfield tribal influences, tempered drones, and an elongated darker strain of abstract electronic noises are balanced across 7-tracks. A visceral manifest that maneuvers across a turbulent ebb and flow is allowed to fester. Not unlike past recordings, the cavernous moods on exhibit reflect upon a smothered aural voyage left to be extrapolated by discerning ears. Corrosive yet calm, Control Agents seeks a lost dystopian world of post-ambient shadows.
Nearfield :: Mars (Reissue) (People Can Listen)
Last month saw the reissue of Nearfield’s Mars (Reissue), now available on Belarus-based People Can Listen. A swirl of ambient-electronic and soothing glitch, each track an untitled piece, here we see the red planet complimented by distilled electronic music for mind and soul. Gravitating towards an early Artificial Intelligence-era theme, Mars finds its place among downtempo echoes, softened beats, and rhythmic waves that bounce all about the spectrum. Always one to elicit emotion from his sound-machines, Nearfield blends subtle vocal sound-clips into the auditory landscape—early Incunabula-era Autechre reflections are also not to be ignored. A smooth trip into outer space to the fourth plant from the Sun, this is 64-minutes of tranquilized IDM, and a relaxed soundtrack to boot.
Qebo :: Wroln 2018 (Detroit Underground)
Wroin 2018 is a remastered version of its original release on Low Impedance (2007) with additional bonus tracks (unreleased, from the same Qebo-era). The updated version is replete with thousands of minuscule electrical bits chopped thoroughly in a blender. If Autechre’s recent NTS Sessions 1-4 (Warp, 2018) hasn’t kept you occupied enough, then Wroln 2018 certainly will. Syncopated and ruptured glitch takes a front seat, crisp beats dribbling about, Qebo manufactures robust digital transmissions that are launched straight into the atmosphere. The title-track a mixture of the aforementioned Autechre influence, with a dosage of Phoenecia electroacoustic elements weaving their way through, Qebo still finds his own signature squabble. It’s easy to see that there’s a push-pull effect on this 2018 revision—each piece exhibits an articulated breach in conforming to any musical standard. Instead, Qebo shatters geometric shapes until there is nothing left but skeletal remains of shuffling auditory miniatures. Dark, exuberant, and unrelenting, Wroln 2018 is a multifaceted glitch beast.
Redox :: Binary Forecast EP (Kahvi Collective)
Time doesn’t sit still on the Binary Forecast EP by Redox, as the artist finds its place in downtempo strains, eroded drums, and nostalgic flurries. One would hope that these blissful, cascading audio photos from Planet Earth make their way through to another galaxy, as Binary Forecast offers the perfect soundtrack to long road-trips along the coastline. Tantalizing and hypnotizing, each piece is a peaceful nugget tucked away in the subconscious, a blend that is equal parts emotive and contemplative. Moments and memories fading in the wind, these sonic particles glide by with an ambient undercurrent made from fuzzy melodic streams that are well worth repeated listening.
Setter :: Transversal EP (Hylé)
Taking on the Transversal theme, the idea behind the technique on this EP is to capture an image without actually using a camera, just by placing objects on a sensible surface and by exposing it to the daylight. Setter does this with sound, however, taking musical shapes, these four pieces drift to the outer edges of the solar system, densely filled with ambient veils, each slice is a visceral foray into unchartered terrain. A dense fog traverses each sound, which loops, falls, and cascades into an abyss. Field recordings, acoustic elements, and synthesized drones create a thick sheet of fluctuations for the listener to sift their way through. As a result, Transversal is a fibrous extended player exuding utter beauty buried within the chaos.
Soramimi :: Sigil In Soil EP (Detroit Underground)
Four fuzzy electrical tracks slid across disjointed bleeps and manipulated digital tones and drones, Soramimi offers a blend that is equal parts mechanical and organic. Crumpled bits and bytes find their way through isolated soundtrack troves, brisk and brittle, yet intoxicating at the same time, Sigil In Soil waxes and wanes in a cosmic soup filled with hundreds of found-sounds, micro-bursts, and tantalizing extraterrestrial rhythms.
SubtractiveLAD :: Everything We Failed to Be (Self-Released)
Admittedly more dance-oriented, Everything We Failed to Be exhibits Stephen Hummel’s expressive electro-techno vein. Diving straight into more abrupt rhythms start to end, each piece maneuvers through microscopic sounds fed through brightly polished machines. Meant to invade abandoned warehouses, SubtractiveLAD takes a firm grip on the transformation and auditory shifts each track displays with ease and control. Acidic washes, blips and bleeps, and a penchant for stirring harder beats, there is an underlying pulse keeping this album alive. With elements of grit and decomposed sounds, Hummel manages to mirror these harsher sounds with punctuated analog-electronic layers that are direct and moving.
UpliNk :: VIVIVIX (Clavitronics)
I received a tip to listen to UpliNk’s VIVIVIX recently—thanks to Steve at Buried In Time—and I’m so glad to have dived right into this recording. These are some of the most creative modular electro-techno and crackling breaks I’ve heard lately. Broken bits and bobbles slice their way into the landscape, pristine and meticulous in construction, each track is an expressive sonic window in and of itself. Industrial fragments, abstract vocal samples from outer-space, ambient plateaus, broken-beat gems, and a wide platform of exp-electronics is unearthed within 10-tracks.VIVIVIX revels in a mixture that is equal parts mystery and delusion in pure, unfettered rhythmic bliss.
Valance Drakes :: Climbs the promise of no real change (M-Tronic)
A bit of a surprise seeing M-Tronic—usually focused on dark(er) experiments—release Valance Drakes’ forthcoming title, and an album no less! Past recordings have been extended players (teasers you could say) for labels such as Cut & Paste, Detroit Underground, Luana, Clean Error, Kaer’Uiks, Schematic, Bedroom Research and many others. For this 10-track release, a much more subdued, dreamlike glitch manifest is on offer. Brisk tones drift in the margins, each piece is practically invisible, almost intentionally transparent. One can hear sounds ebb and flow rather than contort and crackle. Sure, there are broken downbeat slices courtesy of Ivan Shopov’s helping hands, but overall, it seems Valance Drakes has steered this album into background listening environments filled with submerged beats and elongated harmonies. Perhaps the next chapter of this prolific artists’ musical trajectory, Climbs the promise of no real change is a contemplative respite in an otherwise turbulent world. Two special remixes are to be announced once this album sees its release date in August, 2018. Look out, tune in, and fade away.
Vortex Count :: Plasmodesma EP (Detroit Underground)
Vortex Count’s raw electronic sounds and robotic techno are back in full-force for Detroit Underground. This time in a more clinical direction, Plasmodesma dissects noise and metallic clangs in a variable substructure. Hardened beats break through the ice as rhythmic shards are encrusted by the artists knack for punctuated sound-escapes. Swirling atmospheric layers and four-to-the-floor beats navigate through dark corridors from start to end. The magnetic electrical slivers on display are part and parcel of what Vortex Count does so well—each mind-altering rhythm meant to travel directly through vessels to the brain. With Vortex Count steering the way via four cognitive tracks on Plasmodesma, this EP more than communicates its powerful and effective message.
