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- V/A :: Collection 1- Opening(2002)
- CD :: Databloem
:: Databloem, another new label with a noble mission “dedicated to bringing you excellent contemporary intelligent electronica. The music is ambient, groove-ambient, down-tempo, experimental and related sonic creations.” Here we have five artists each with 15-minute tracks nourishing our ears with fine sounds from five continents. Opening with “The Circular Ruins” (APK’s Anthony Paul Kirby) whose “Aperture: A Lesson in Cosmology” is a safari, a search of unknown terrain. This Canadian band’s name was taken from a story by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. “Aperture” is a dreamy investigation, like taking a digital camcorder into a tropical bird sanctuary and lying motionless while the rapture of nature fascinates the senses. We are offered the spectral, kaleidoscopic results. Mutagene (Alexis Glass) offers “A Borrowed Skin,” which is music from Ironson, a documentary directed by Cousin Chang. Glass, an acoustic audio phenomena student in Fukuoka, Japan, has developed a calming piece that hovers and probes. Its fluorescence builds and stabilizes with an insightful use of modulating synths. Spheroid is a project of Kiel Germany’s J. Wolfgang Röttger, whose name means a subcutaneous calcification, but he spares us the gore in this soaring astral projection of sonic ambience. “Imbedded Neptune” is filled with fireworks and flying orbs. The track wavers a bit on the edge of new age, tipping into AOR territory, but bears enough hypnotic interlocking sequence to mark its muted Berlin-school approach. Kwookyworld is offered by Austrailian namesake Kwook whose peripheral sounds keep us above the surface. Kwook writes music for game software and Toyota uses the sounds he has created with another project, Wiggly, in car commercials in Japan. The final track on this disc is “Encounter (In An Unexplored Nebula)” by Sweden’s The Civilized Electrons (TCE). There is something of a chamber orchestra shrunk to the size of a music box here. TCE is Positron Alpha, a university student working in the electronic medium for about eight years with a wry sense of humor. The end result is anything but a laughing matter in this weaving piece of intense stillness. Collection 1- Opening is a rest stop on the electronic superhighway.
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- V/A :: opensource.code(2002)
- CD :: Source
:: Bring it on! Source Records is the new force behind post-glitch. Their new compilation opensource.code includes To Rococo Rot’s Robert Lippok, Thomas Brinkmann (Profan), Move D (Warp), Jan Jelinek (~scape), Monolake and Sutekh among others. Opening with a wonderfully funky “Synthaxis 2” Montreal-based artist Marc Leclair a.k.a. Akufen (Force Inc) samples his way into our disco heart and busts the house with a strobe light of progressive ambient. On his heels German low-fi dub-techno whizkid Jelinek (Farben) is logged in on “Music to Interrogate By,” wired for micro-static subtle beats. S.E. Berlin offers the lounge-flavored dub house minimalism of “Toninas” with an offbeat hint of future islands. Berlin-based Lippok is a busy man, having just recently played at this year’s Lovebytes Festival, and in between strategies with mainstay band To Rococo Rot shows no signs of wavering. On “6 a.m.” Lippok is burning the candle of time, er the glow of his Powerbook, perhaps. The whir and buzz is so nice, so acidic, yet goes down smooth as silk. Bton (Jonas Grossman) proves that using muffled cornet (or an artifice thereof) can be effective. On “Nocturne” Deep Space Network’s Grossman shows us how to create an alter world where the wee hours are where you are just getting started.
By far the funkiest track on this disc, its soul lies in its interpretation to make you recall impressions of bygone eras. Hailing from the Bay Area Sutekh (Seth Horvitz) has released a handful of reputable platters on Mille Plateaux, Plug Research and his own label Context. Having recently toured France, Poland and the US Horvitz presents us with the airtite “Asscr,” trancy techno with a funky finish. Leave it to Thomas Brinkmann (aka Soul Center) to serve us such a lacquered finish on “Momoklick,” complete with a sodered and unspecific organic edge. This is dance music without a floor. This is making something of the sediment that is suspended in its open-air construct. Cologne-based Brinkmann’s loops and altered beats are unprecedented in this field of micro-tech tunes. David Moufang, known as Move D (Compost/Fax), has worked with luminaries Pete Namlook and Deep Space Network. On “µst” we are into warbling vibes tick-ticking with a vibrant chill out ambience. Alex Cortex is recontextualized by Tom Thiel in this remix of “Laconic,” a dry reduction with open wires from the full-length of the same name. Studio Pankow (Kai Kroker, Moufang) closes the program with “Linienbusse,” a lovely meeting of sonics and piano. This mesmerizing avant minimal track is filled with light and purpose, plotting like a lullaby. This disc stays true to its title – in the way classic collections like Clicks + Cuts (Mille Plateaux) and Microscopic Sound (Caipirinha) – this seems to be a likely third installment in the world of micro-sound greatness.
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- V/A :: Post Office(2002)
- CD :: Logistic / Telegraph
:: From the very first funky note the bpms are getting me moving. This Parisian label also has one of the best websites I have seen in a while. Bringing together funky electro acts Post Office delivers! “Dawn” by Cabanne gleefully bounces the opening on this disc. Its squeaky appeal pops and drives its minimal house format. Ben Neville expands the minimal concept here a touch and adds shorted breath sample and light cymbal percussion on “Petid.” Unknown Mysterioso (Karat), a project by Ark, offers the bad-ass techno house pleaser “Taimz,” turning the disc into an instant party. Alter-ego Ark then plays “Pro-Blaim” with its deconstructed acid flavor and inferences to the cult classic “Liquid Sky” (listen closely). Label owner (7th City, Accelerate) Daniel Bell’s (Tresor/Klang) up-tempo glitch-house number “Rhodes 1” steals the sky. Hailing from sunny California, Bell, who has collaborated with techno genius Ritchie Hawtin, spins us right round with enough propulsion to catch a second wind. In the totally distorted “Oral 3” Afuken provides all the reptile beats and stunted vinyl antics. Warped fare for the X generation for sure. Interlude (Cabanne) offers the very short “Trex” which pokes its high-pitched sine waves and signs out. Drawing back from 1997’s Do The Dimbi is Germany’s Dimbiman (Perlon) sampling and fretting the bars of electronica, climbing higher and higher with an irresistible dance beat. Up next is Robert Hood’s (Axis, M-Plant) abrupt “Realm” taken from the Monobox EP. The track paces the center of the recording by this seasoned techno specialist. And then – BAM – in comes the total surprise cut by Ricardo Villalobos (Perlon/Playhouse). “My Life Without A Wife” is a pop techno wonder – with just the right spices: disco, abstractions, muted voice manipulation and enough beat to shake a stick at, or just plain shake. This is the fortune in this cookie – stop-starting with percussive fun, and a dash of Latin drums. This German spinster has a lengthy future ahead for our sake! Closing this shop down is Deperissement Progressif creating a street beat tick-tock sizzle and live feel to “Panic Patrol Blues” taken from their La Guerre aux Trousses recording on Karat 5. The track seems to have parts. An all out tech attack and then smoothing out after a pause into a jazzy guitar short ending the disc on an expressive, yet hmmm note. This is a great comp for funky people who want something to spin on continuous play.
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- Brendan Walls :: Cassia Fistula(2002)
- CD :: Idea
:: Sydney-based Walls releases his debut solo disc Cassia Fistula, a work of electro-static energy and vibrancy. The disc is split into three sections, raging with stealth, soaring noise frequencies. Drawing from high pitch tones and angular drones, this newcomer is working with Oren Ambarchi (Ritornell, Staubgold) whose minimal compositions and collaboration work are evident on the mix work in sections one and three. Working with defective hi-fi equipment and homemade electronic devices, Walls has developed a trip-like exploration of deep, organic (cassia fistula – a 10 meter tree) sound-sphere, not for the passive listener. This is not for relaxation, this is not click/cut/glitch, this is not dark ambient. This is discovery, almost improvised, in unfolding beauty, its nature warns of the dark side of the power behind its ornamental exterior.
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- Dan Warburton/Adam Sonderberg/Kevin Shea :: Folktales No. 3(2002)
- CD :: Crouton
:: Folktales is Crouton’s 3×3″ exploratory limited edition (300 only) series of literary sound and performance. Hailing from Manchester, England, Dan Warburton’s 20012002 combines his violin as filtered through a variety of programming. This first of three discs was recorded by Eric La Casa in Paris. In its suppressed modulation I am inclined to image a mad doctor’s laboratory where a being clings to its life support. Awakened, midway, the action illuminates quite quickly and then falls completely silent. Back to the gasping asthmatic phrasing of free-standing breathing apparatus in its filters and fragility – we witness a 20 minute binocular tone poem. Given the impression of something more expected to be tucked into the soundtrack of one of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s finer moments, we are cast in this fractured ode. Watch for his upcoming Basement Tapes on Durtro.
Chicagoan Adam Sonderberg revives any expectations of how a guitar can be used in the outer space vibrance of “I Just Want To Make Sure That We Have The Context Correct Here.” Sine waves bloom like fractal weeds, grrrrrowing fervently and on contact. This concrete composition is a fateful gist of droneism to the nth degree. We are securing engines for take-off here. In a drumkit alarm the truth unfolds, and it’s a lovely cacophony, a tumbling avalanche that teases and halts. As the sonics lie quietly on the back burner there is a building tension that cannot be ignored, a low hum crackle like an alert amphibian stalking its dinner. The wait seems endless, but the precision needs to be this time-sensitive. Having worked alongside contemporaries Kevin Drumm and Ernesto Diaz-Infante there is a bright future ahead. Closing the trilogy is Kevin Shea (Touch and Go) who studied drumming at my hometown Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Spoken word and percussion are the fare here, discussing the evocative temptations of various exotic meats and bikini models. Between romping drum solos Shea speaks in cut up newsprint worthy extreme, bleeding from improvised journalism. Technicolor visual imagery with a certain inverted vision of a world through rose colored glasses. This is post-beat dada. Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires is a partially obscured haughty offering of being undermined in third person.
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- Schneider TM :: Zoomer(2002)
- CD :: Mute/City Slang
:: Kraftwerk goes folk, then toss in some Richard Norris reconstructing Cher and a bit of attitude and voila, a Reality Check it is! The latest from Schneider TM (Dirk Dresselhaus) whose been hiding out since his phenomenal debut, Moist, on Mute over 3 years ago, releases a fly disc with some delicious pop trappings. It is a curve ball from his debut, though Mr. Dresselhaus has not been resting his laurels, rather, he has been busy collaborating with diverse acts like the High Llamas and Pansonic. The ‘borg-like cover art crosses trains with Edgar Froese, Devo and all that 70s stuff. The lazy fun of the first single “Frogtoise” twists tongues and deformed hums in electronic delicacy. On “Abyss,” this German native makes the good times roll with more Beck inferences than maybe even Beck makes these days. A funky yet drooping, melodic ride through stunted beats and plasticity. And this recording is about lyrical content as caught on the urban “Turn On” where rapped we hear “eyes blink a rollin’ cup a hoopin peas that tickle the flute played by the cooling breeze jumping over the fields, jumping over the fields, for the feel of the diaphragm”. Huh? Recorded in Berlin, Schneider TM employs the apt vocal ramblings of Max Turner. Though I scratch my head in the face of the needless hip-hop appeal here. Saved by “Hunger,” a track that harkens back to the beloved Moist, I am curious about the filler addition of vocal/lyric content similar to that as seen by fellow artist Luke Slater’s recent release. Is this just a trend? I am perfectly satisfied by the hypnotic sensationalism of the instrumental work produced here, in all its kling-klang and static energy. Destined to be a club mix favorite, “999” has sheer nerve, screechingly going boldly where others may avoid, into volume, velocity and distractions. The pops and clicks make this track a tunnel of fun. Upbeat electronics soar zoomingly with a solid bassline provided by Christopher Uhe. As we draw to a close “Cuba TM” recalls veiney harmonies laid out in Bjork’s Vespertine provided by the thin, groovy layering of strings by Cati Aglibut. There is no hurry to dance in its dalliance, as this a late summer sleeper.
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- Town and Country :: C’Mon(2002)
- CD :: Mute/Thrill Jockey
:: Ben Vida’s moody guitar opens “Going to Kamakura” on the latest by Town and Country. C’Mon is the prodigal offspring of Thrill Jockey’s roster of talent. The tingling chimes of Liz Payne message the stars and satellites. This is a lovely mix of gentle arranged harmony with Josh Abrams’ solid bassline and the ethereal harmonium played by Jim Dorling. Like label mates Tortoise, these players are each multi-instrumentalists, switching musical gear from track to track. On the dizzying “I’m Appealing” the comparison to Philip Glass is too obvious, and oblivious. Vida and Payne duel with the acoustic strings in a continuous wash of layered, harp-like lilt. The reverie of “The Bells” is built around the symphonic wind instrumentation of Dorling’s bass clarinet and Vida’s cornet, staccato and searching. The minimal repetition is a true test in acoustic circular breathing. These windy city players have shortened their earlier lengthy tracks for a compact offering on C’Mon. “I am So Very Cold” has a light, Mr. Rogersesque frivolity. Payne’s bass is on the front line and carries the tracks from slipping into its thin cracks. This disc will appeal to fans of Kronos Quartet, the Hilliard Ensemble and other neo-classical acts that cross into other genres skillfully. Vida is clearly the standout player of the ensemble with his cornet at the helm. There is a subtle reminiscing with the themes of 60s cinema on Palms. Closing out the recording is the very upbeat “Bookmobile” complete with some mean marimba by Payne to the band’s syncopated background handclaps. File under easy listening.
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- AMP :: L’Amour Invisible(2002)
- CD :: Space Age
:: Following their Space Age Recordings debut live release Sain Cecilia Sinsemillia (2000), the reinvented AMP (Richard Amp and Corine c. Olivier Gauthier) picks up the delicate pieces and runs with them snugly tucked underarm. “Crazyhead” is a character biopic like a lazy haiku and opens this sultry set. This, their sixth studio recording, includes pop-friendly “Curious Smile” which blends Astrud Gilberto with Creatures overtones. “Where Was When” harkens the wary angels customarily found in the center of a stray Throwing Muses sleeper complete with stressed guitar work and above ground fretting vocal. There is a signature here, maybe profoundly conceptual, that links this band to the label that boasts such other players as Spectrum and Experimental Audio Research. The breathy “Glasshouse Jam” (co-penned with Jan Zert) pairs a Reich-like piano line as the last breath of half-dangling nymphs plead in tongues of lost nations. Keiko Sugiyama’s cover art for L’Amour Invisible is a striking and textural miasma of microscopic highlights of frayed soft fabric landscapes. It is an insightful, immediate union with that which its package contains. The theremin sounding bellows of “Junkyard Blues” is a sad investigatory piece that uses sound to envelop a dark space, with chains, warble and a hint of Lost In Space. “Go” closes the disc, overcome with illusions of ambiance. This is a mysterious release by a band not egocentric enough to avoid their past collaboration with such electronic experimenters as Robert Hampson (Main). Nor are they too proud not to hide a secret unnamed track far into the finale here… I’ll let you hunt – but let’s just say its worth its overbearing weight. AMP are too cutting edge to be mid-career – so rest assured that you will be blessed further into the future by these pioneers of shallow rhythmics.
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- Scott Arford / Randy H.Y. Yau :: Edit for Unconsciousness(2001)
- CD :: Auscultare Research
:: Sound/video artist Scott Arford (7hz, Radiosconde) and audio artist/sound curator Randy H.Y. Yau (23five Incorporated) have collaborated on a wired recording of intense depth. The four tracks on Edit for Unconsciousness evidence a rambling range of sensibility with a hint of Tetuo Furudate here and a dollop of Kapotte Muziek there. Arford’s “Drift Counter” is a white wash of buzzer noise and open mic sizzle. At about 23 minutes the isolated energy of the mower-like sonics freeze my subconscious for a moment and stir-fry it back up again. Working in multimedia these gentlemen have collaborated on a work that uses mid-tones of feedback to inform, not shock and destroy. The title has film/video references as I could imagine this extended sound mirage as being integral to a performance piece including dance, light and the moving image (however slowly). Drops of threatening noise taunt in Yau’s long-player “Second Coming,” like a griddling of some type of hovering being that gets caught in the radiant glow of drone. The track climaxes to a gas-like explosion which melts all in its course to the din of reverberation. Edit for Unconsciousness also includes Arford’s barely grounded “Headworms,” originally released as part of a split mini-CD with the Haters. The piece has a molten core slow-roasting all in/outputs. Yau’s “Realia” opens this recording with a quick-cut-up cum slow perk approach. Its mild side is nothing if not an eerie message from a force outside of our realm. Suddenly the plug is pulled and wavers out in slow motion. The drama invigorates and has the ability to give you the shakes – play this one loud for full-on bravado!
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- Kenneth Atchley :: Fountains(2002)
- CD :: Auscultare Research
:: Ground Fault Recordings sub-label, Auscultare Research, introduces us to the world of Kenneth Atchley’s symphonic sculptures here on Fountains. This debut is certainly not easy listening, it is active listening. Like an oblique performance art piece, this disc blends field recordings with a long list of ingredients (natural and synthetic materials) accumulating sounds from sculptural fountains. Atchley’s academic approach meets where the senses do, sight and sound embedded outside of gallery confines. Fountains treats its listener to rushing floods and other spectacular water-based sources. These trickles, falls and geysers temper the minds consistency as the noise channels change in tones and drones. The recording documents three “fountains” (each approx. 20 minutes in length) dedicated to performers and creative luminaries, inspired by sounds and words, streets and liquids in a range of variables. “fountain_1999.20” is a memorial to radical queer composer Phil Harmonic (Kenneth Werner) who performed with Boston’s Sonic Arts Union in the mid 60s and composer Jim Horton of the League of Automatic Music Composers. This first fountain plays delicately in its wet wisdom of serene and disjointed phrasing. At the center of this triptych is “fountain_1998.3,” an uninterrupted sonic waterfall in which the background noise becomes the foreground to a waning sequencer, barely audible over the din. Inside this barrage of Merzbow-esque tranquility there are lost slight voices and pitch tests leaking out. In closing “fountain_2001.5” drips seductively through organic spaces between crystals and metal objects. Nature’s pounding is synthesized, re-manufactured and processed. A pleasant, contorted surprise – for the lil’ surfer in our minds eye!
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- Balligomingo :: Beneath The Surface(2002)
- CD :: BMI/RCA
:: Balligomingo (Garrett Schwarz) is a new face on the scene – Fans of Moby, Saint Etienne and even Pet Shop Boys will adapt to the bevy of rich female vocals all taking solo stage for a track or so on his debut Beneath The Surface. On the opening “Purify,” former Canadian theater chanteuse, Jody Quine, provides apt piercing talent. In “Escape” we are treated to the Cranberries-tinged vocal of Colleen Coadic. The haunting “Falling” presents Beverley Staunton’s dreamy vocalese accompanied by sensitive string arrangements by Graeme Coleman. Kinetic programming duties on “Wild Butterfly” harkens creative popular references to Sara McLachlan and Enigma. A smooth and subdued tempo illuminates wispy lyrics like “do you see the sun through the sea… through the sea I am home” on “Privilege.” On the standout track “Lost” Camille Miller wraps around a lush electro-global rhythm showcasing her finely tuned instrument. Her years playing in pop rock and r&b bands has payed off significantly here – though I could image her voice paired with a jazz outfit to a brilliant end. Balligomingo makes a fine debut with Beneath The Surface – though here’s looking forward to the depths to which he can travel.
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- Frank Bretschneider & Taylor Deupree :: Balance(2002)
- CD :: Mille Plateaux
:: A (super)natural duo of Berlin’s Bretschneider and the Big Apple’s 12K head honcho Taylor Deupree. This record is filled with lengthy sine wave passages in upright tribute to digital synthesis. Programmed like a charm, especially on “Vertical Indicator” where we take a trip through space and land on a forbidden planet. I must have played this disc at least 5 or 6 times in the last month and it gets better with each generation. Bretschneider (of the Raster-Noton gang) is somewhat of an improviser in his field of minimal cryptic noisemaking. His sound, always crisp and up-tempo, is devoid of anything analogue. He is righteously poised in a long line of fellow German artists who have made countless noteworthy contributions to the field of electronic music. Sharp static abounds and shuffles through “Moving Light” as it delves into alien territories of buzzing caricatures and beating aircrafts. Funky at its core, the dissonant reverberation and vital energy of “Half-Mute” make me at once focus and move. “Autodrive” is an update of Kraftwerk’s “Pocketcalculator” seen through the guise of the secret encoding on the mythological “Their Satanic Majesties Request.” Pairing up with the prolific curator of contemporary electronica, Taylor Deupree, this combo takes risks on their first time out. Thirty-two year old Deupree has amassed a great sounding (and looking) discography in a decade, unflinchingly establishing himself in a world not quite ready for small sounds. But, in doing so he pleases the ear of the aesthete among us – with a special nod to this release. This disc includes Quicktime visuals by Bretschneider which, unfortunately, I was unable to access. Mille Plateaux’s Balance will undoubtedly end up in my top ten list of this year.
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Essential Links ::
- Databloem
- Source
- Logistic / Telegraph
- Idea
- Crouton
- Mute/City Slang
- Thrill Jockey
- Space Age
- Auscultare Research
- BMI
- Mille Plateaux
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Note :: All reviews previously appeared in Instrumental Weekly.
