Quite possibly with the help of the website design and previous cover art, I always envisioned the music released on Audiobulb to be composed by robotic insects: intricately built, crunchy, and considered to be a delicacy in many parts of the world. Although the first “Mpfree” release, Exhibition #1, wasn’t anything that got me too excited, the second installment, Exhibition #2, won me over immediately and received heavy rotation on my computer [then later my CD player when I had to burn it so I could listen to it on the go] for months. This time around, Audiobulb has a released a proper 14-track compilation CD entitled Switches.
Switches picks up where Exhibition #2 left off, but while the overall aesthetic hasn’t changed much, it certainly doesn’t feel like a sequel. Still filled with enough glitch to make a skipping CD jealous, this release breathes a bit more organic life into the music. Old favorites are still abound with Bllix, Diagram Of Suburban Chaos, He Can Jog, Prhizzm, and Effacer all making contributions again, but the synth pads all sound a little warmer, the beats a little brisker, and the ambiences a little more colorful. With so many sub-genres of IDM, clicks and cuts, glitch, ambio-drone, and lapfolktronica, I have no idea what exact categorization this compilation would be filed under. In fact, I have to admit that I don’t listen to much music that I would consider to be similar to this at all. However, if Audiobulb continues to raise the bar of their future releases as much as they have for their past three, there won’t be much need to look elsewhere.
Some tracks like Disastrato’s “C(ch)oaipba, Koa, C(ch)(S+am)” are collections of extremely minimal blips and scratches so sparse they blend in with the drone of the refrigerator in the next room and the traffic outside till you forget that your apartment isn’t truly part of the performance, though it works nicely. Others like Rodolphe Küffer’s “Content” and Build’s “A Development- with a grid of streets and a shopping center heart” are nice little jams of tightly structured, yet elegant electric beats. A particular favorite is the unassuming “Singalong Tammy” by Marion. Simple, searching guitar lines are padded with contrapuntal tones and guided by the rare IDM beat that isn’t a VST fanfare –Sincere and effective.
This album could be a transitional point for Audiobulb- stay the course or use it as a departure into other sounds and ideas. While it was a natural progression from Exhibition #2 to Switches the expansion could lead to so many different paths and styles. I think it would be interesting to see what else Audiobulb has in store, but if they stayed close to their current form it would in no way be a loss. However if you want to classify what Audiobulb does, they are doing it just as well (if not better) than anyone else out there.
Switches is out now on Audiobulb Records.
