The pressure’s been rising again and Karsten Pflum now offers up a set of works in the guise of Camera Obscura—a twisted tale of analog sounds trying to make it in the harsh and dangerous digital world.
A twisted tale of analog sounds
I had much fun the last time I reviewed some of Karsten Pflum’s work on Touched Music—the revelation that was the Revealed EP allowed some built-up steam to be released and man did it feel good. Well, the pressure’s been rising again and Karsten Pflum now offers up a set of works in the guise of Camera Obscura—a twisted tale of analog sounds trying to make it in the harsh and dangerous digital world.
The release does indeed open with a piece that tells a story—I initially interpret “Serg Synthkey 1,” as a beautiful game show skit of warped proportions but it soon has me picturing a funk-filled detective show—one where there’s no rule-following whatsoever and anything goes. I’d watch the hell out of that. It’s almost a skit, and its call is responded to with a second part later on that is no-less funky or narrative in nature.
On the theme of detectives, “Thomson and Thompson” unlike its incompetent namesakes displays absolutely no incompetence whatsoever, with somewhat muted elements against a strong and rolling mechanical rhythm that plays to my love of many things early Warp and gets me going. It’s not hard to hear the AFX influence in a lot of Pflum’s work—whereas I often found portions of “Analord” less-than-engaging waiting for the excitement to kick off again, I don’t find that at all in any of Karsten’s output.
There’s always something happening and his masterful programming makes fine work of any potential lulls in the thrill. Of note are tracks 2 and 7, “Solwong” and “My Lonely Art” respectively. Both exhibit awesome syncopation and great use of two or three note cells, managing to feel very Cornish in the process—literally music to my ears.
Specimens of noise that display pure musicality ::
All the pieces here are constructed in a manner that gives me a choice, and much like a camera obscura itself I’m given the choice of being in the middle of it or existing on the outside peering in at the curiosity created. A perfect example would be “Hubertus,” I can have this happily on in the background to brighten up an otherwise boring morning, but I often find myself getting right in there and bathing in the layered-euphoria it offers.
Always welcome are specimens of noise that display pure musicality—I often use these as examples to argue with people who have something against electronic music. Onto this list goes “Amajheim”—it’s so discordant but with utter clarity and purpose that it just strengthens my argument for when I inevitably next get into a heated discussion.
As always there are going to be a couple of stand-out songs on an album—”We’ll Go At Night” is born in a good key and presents plenty of layering opportunities throughout. Given the choice of two things I’ll always elect for the more sinister of the two and this certainly fits the bill. “Iso66″ has a very simple broken acoustic opening that takes me right back to my days of listening to the Grand Central label—”Riton” in particular. It’s rock steady as a track with phrases that cut right through to your ears. The ensuing battle between this steadiness and the telltale braindance breaks appearing out of nowhere which put it on my favorites list.
Overall this is another enjoyable release from both Karsten Pflum (and Touched Music), providing a good variety of tracks that definitely don’t end how they begin and constantly keep me on my toes. It will be available as a limited release of double LP or a CD, also in all of your favorite digital formats I am sure.
Camera Obscura is available on Touched Music. [Bandcamp]
