The rhythm patterns are slightly broken up and arrive with glitchy textures, small crackles and such. There is a warm atmosphere to the music.
Vulnerable, as if the tape is about the burst
From the ever-prolific Matt Atkins comes another short tape. In the earliest days, Atkins released music under Matthew Atkins and Platform. The latter was his rhythmic, technoid project, and under his name, the music was a bit more improvised, mostly object-based. In Cracked Syntax Variants, he combines both interests. I admit not knowing too much about his set-up, but I think he dug out an old drum machine or uses some rhythm patches from Platform, which he copies onto a reel-to-reel loop; a four-track reel-to-reel, so he plays around with the various sounds captured on tape, going to outside sound effects, and the results are primarily rhythmic, but not for dancing.
The rhythm patterns are slightly broken up and arrive with glitchy textures, small crackles and such. There is a warm atmosphere to the music. Vulnerable, as if the tape is about the burst, especially in the last piece, “CSV5,” where Atkins is most ambient. In the other four pieces, the rhythm machine plays a significant role. With the delay pedal, one could also see a relation with dub music, but Atkins gives it all a twist of his own. I found this a very enjoyable cassette, which, however, begs the question: why so short, why only five pieces? I can easily see more potential in the music here, more variants if you will. Or, perhaps, I’m not too fond of cassettes being too short.
Review by: Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly #1365. Reprinted with permission.
Cracked Syntax Variants is available on Tone Burst. [Bandcamp]
