(04.05.08) [Ref. D::N Playlist #280] Flexor81‘s “Lifeforms” featured on the Karner Blue EP with seedling High Grade Media displays a post-industrial edge tied with organically flavored rhythms. Defender‘s “Vesicle Pisces,” while relatively short in duration, aptly unfolds sliced vocal delivery and a darkened experimental feel on his enpeg.com mini-album entitled Wherever You Are, You’re Home. Lowriders Deluxe (a new band featuring Clive Burns, Joseph Auer, Utility Player and Zainetica) combines instrumental jazz and digital-fuzz on their “Autumn Sunset No.2” contribution on the debut Future Deluxe with Symbolic Interaction. Acumen’s self-titled full length with Benbecula‘s Minerals Series has a calming acoustic feel; “Blind” encapsulates this mood with its casual beatwork and magnetic groove.
Yvat just released a new 3″ CDr on the Envizagae imprint entitled Mentation 01; on the track “Bias,” Yvat manages to reconfigure the sound of decomposing machinery into an aural artform. Teargass & Plateglass’ dark-ambient release on Waxploitation called Black Triage might not be new for 2008, but it certainly has a lasting quality; packed with downtempo rhythms, stripped vocal sampling and widened beats; “Simplify The Landscape With Darkness” delivers exactly what the title insinuates. Lipsis’ Community MP3 release with enpeg.com offers emotive electric pulses in a way that would compliment the sounds of Lexaunculpt or earlier Autechre releases; “Things Fall Apart” is an epic experiment of future worlds brought forth in constructive bytes and pieces. Japan-based Electr-ohm offer up their latest industrialized chaos in the form of a CD compilation entitled My Life In An Insulation Test; Lagowski’s “Vocal Impulse Test” is a chopped vocal, noise meets post-industrial number. Burial‘s Untrue full-length on Hyperdub continues to torment dub-bassbins around the world; with its title track, sinister vocal extracts wrap around fluid undercurrents.
Spectraliquid recently released Konkrete, a compilation highlighting known and unknown artists that doesn’t depend on one particular genre to classify itself, instead their variance is what should set them apart from the heap of experimental labels; Fabrics‘ “All Rights Reserved” contribution offers enough in its few minutes to create an atmosphere that is drenched in polished industrial remnants. Autoclav1.1‘s original “Nothing But Pillow Teeth” featured on Visitor Attractions (Crunch Pod) was a highlight in itself and I could not imagine any musician recreating or making this particular track any better than it already was; I was wrong, almost. On Broken Beats for Broken Hearts (Hive, featured cover art), Alter Der Ruine re-envisions this classic by maintaining the original emotional harmony and subtly reconstructing it into a broken-beat, trapezoidal shape. Totakeke’s latest offering for burgeoning Tympanik Audio entitled ELekatota – The Other Side Of The Tracks delves back into the roots of electronic body music; with the epic “Gift of Nervous Methods,” Totakeke offers ten-minutes of mangled ambient beauty and distortion.
Digital::Nimbus is a weekly electronic music radio show broadcasting from KUCI 88.9 FM in the Irvine, California and surrounding areas with streaming media available at KUCI.org. For more information visit digitalnimbus.com.
