(12.27.05) No matter how close to Dec 31st, the End of the Year charts are complete only if one waits until the year after. According to Murhpy’s Law, a handful of days before Xmas (and a week after compiling my annual Top Ten) I found in my local record shop a lonely copy of Dataplex looking at me and screaming buy me!. With the help of a massive buzz surrounding its release, and considering I do not own even one Raster-Noton CD, I decided to take my first journey into clicking territories. Having heard some of the Trans-etc. series by Alva Noto, I had a clue of what to expect. In fact, from “data.index” to “data.hypercomplex” I found the expected amount of nanoclicks and ultra-high frequencies, supported by bass waves and crunching pulses.
But after the “data.googolplex” snippet, “data.microhelix” and “data.superhelix” turn towards frantic, frenzied structures, clicks and bubbling bass are assembled in fast rhythmical patterns: the experimentation on pure data has been implemented with the aim of having fun and going mental. “data.syntax” is another example of this concept, while starting with simple tickings, it rapidly evolves into a mind-joggling track, interrupted by sudden outbursts of solid noise. After the self-explaining “data.telex,” you will find the beautiful “data.flex” and “data.reflex,” which have almost a house touch, think The Rip Off Artist dried out and fuelled with extreme frequencies, plus a massive injection of quaking bass that will put your woofers in serious trouble. The hardest test track is “data.vertex” though, frequencies at both ends of the spectrum will give your ears the sensation of being trapped in a submarine in complete darkness, while your CD player display will probably say “why are you doing this to me?” The sad news, dear CD player, is that you must go through the ten minutes of “data.matrix,” and then battle against “data.adaplex,” a track expressively conceived to perform a data-read test for optical drives (as it says on the tin). The former is like all the previous tracks condensed into one, while the latter is quite obnoxious, very noisy and buzzing, like an infamous Tipper test track for subwoofers had been remixed by Russell Haswell.
My CD device played the entire record without a playback error, so I’m very proud of it and finally I know I spent my money well. It should be obvious, but listening to Dataplex in mp3 format is like driving a Ferrari at 30mph.
Dataplex is out now on Raster-Noton.
