This 12″ release on Shipwrec is lusher and less glitchy than 2003’s Milli Tónverka, and even more surprisingly, introduces Middle Eastern tonalities and instrumentation.
[Release page] Einóma fans insisting that Steindór Kristinsson’s new solo effort Flute Machine exactly recapitulate the earlier material’s sound might be disappointed, but, listened to on its own merits, there is much to like here. This 12″ release on Shipwrec is lusher and less glitchy than 2003’s Milli Tónverka, and even more surprisingly, introduces Middle Eastern tonalities and instrumentation. The A side title track opens with high-frequency squelches that lead into a propulsive classic IDM rhythm track — the clonk and clatter of Autechre’s Tri Repetae or Phonem come to mind. An erratic synth melody bridges to the second half of the song, where it accelerates and morphs into a blistering Persian modality that carries the rest of the track, underpinned by the deep Icelanding sub-bass which rattled my windows back in the days of Einóma’s “Hringlögun.” On the flip side, “Madame Claude” blasts right into a Goa trance mode, with all the familiar elements of that genre (qaawali vocals, delayed sitar, tribal percussion) refined and lifted out of cliché by the sheer skill with which they’re put together. “Take Two” closes out the release with a pleasant ambient excursion, hinting of jazz-brush snare and cymbal behind field recordings and a shimmering sustained chord. Shipwrec say these tracks will be included in a forthcoming full-length album due December 2011 — the thematic diversity and sylistic progression Kristinsson displays here make it one not to miss.
Flute Machine is released on Shipwrec. [Release page]
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