07 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Given how much I loved Cascade, my curiosity about this more ambitious companion album made for quite an impatient month of anticipation.  Unfortunately, now that The Deluge has finally arrived, I do not know quite what to make of it.  My initial gut feeling was that Basinski's added intervention diluted a piece that was already perfect and complete, but it has since grown on me quite a bit with repeated listens.  While I still feel that Cascade is the superior album, The Deluge mostly balances out its flaws with some higher highpoints than its predecessor.  Also, it will likely hold a lot of appeal for anyone who has always wanted to love William Basinski, but wished he were more dynamic (though I personally prefer him as just an invisible guiding presence).

Temporary Residence/2062

Unsurprisingly, The Deluge sounds almost exactly like Cascade when it begins, as it is constructed from the same brief, bittersweet, and endlessly looping piano motif.  The only noticeable difference is that it feels a bit like it is being played on a somewhat wobbly and erratic tape player this time around.  Gradually, however, Basinski's numerous, varying-length feedback loops begin to make their impact more and more prominent and the piece begins to take on a bleary, smeared, and after-image-heavy identity of its own.  That said, it still takes some time before it becomes fully evident why Basinski and Temporary Residence thought The Deluge warranted its own album.  For me, that point comes around the 8:40 mark, when ghost-like shuddering swells start to surface from the melancholy haze of fragile piano.  While that particular feat of illusion does not stick around for very long, it is more than enough to justify this album's existence, as it is completely unexpected, weirdly natural-seeming, and eerily beautiful, as if the tape loop finally became worn down enough to set free the dark, buried secret fluttering beneath the notes.

About ten minutes later, The Deluge offers up yet another surprise, as the delicate piano theme slowly fades away to be replaced by a stuttering and overlapping new piano motif.  Again, however, that transformation is short-lived, as The Deluge then surges into an obsessively repeating orchestral crescendo before fading into a single undulating drone.  That might seem like a logical ending point, but the piece resurfaces yet again…sort of, anyways: the last ten minutes are an unadultered reprise of the Cascade album (part of it, at least).

There is definitely a lot to like about The Deluge, as Basinski’s transformative use of feedback loops managed to extract an added layer of mysterious beauty from a piece that was already one of my favorites.  Also, the orchestral passages are a bit of an unexpectedly playful, yet darkly evocative new facet to Basinski's aesthetic.  If it had been perfectly executed, I would place The Deluge near the top of Basinski’s discography, but it regrettably has some quirks that take it down a few pegs.

The first is a huge peeve of mine:  releasing pieces on vinyl that are too long to fit on one side of an album.  To his credit, William at least found a logical stopping point, as the first side feels like its own complete piece (the opening piano loop fades out 20 minutes after it started).  The problem is that that is not the end of the piece, as the remaining movement kicks off the second side and feels like something new altogether.  Also, there are some odd transitions and a feeling of being condensed as well- I did not like Basinski's tendency to always fade into silence between motifs, nor was I thrilled about how the appended version of Cascade lasted only ten minutes, as duration was an extremely important part of the original Cascade’s power.  Ultimately, I still think The Deluge is a great album, but I cannot escape the exasperating irony that Williams’s successful attempt to expand his scope as a composer coincides with the unfortunate decision to compose specifically for the media most ill-suited for its presentation.

• The Deluge (excerpt one)
• The Deluge (excerpt two)
• The Deluge (excerpt three)

 

07 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Haley Fohr's Thrill Jockey debut finds her again returning to the idiosyncratic singer-songwriter vein that first surfaced on 2013's Overdue.  There is a new twist though: Fohr is now backed by a full band of Chicago music scene luminaries in additional to returning collaborator Cooper Crain (of Bitchin Bajas).  The result is quite a strange, kaleidoscopic, and temporally dislocated one, drifting from inspired experimentalism to '70s-style folk-rock to something resembling Diamanda Galas fronting a Led Zeppelin cover band.  Personally, I vastly prefer her experimental side ("Dream of TV" is absolutely stellar), but there is no denying the singular power and otherness of Fohr's voice.

Thrill Jockey

Haley Fohr is the quintessential Artist That I Do Not Understand At All, which I suppose is what keeps me coming back to her work: I might not always like what she does, but I vastly prefer being puzzled to being bored.  For example, the Circuit Des Yeux albums before Overdue were largely experimental and instrumental, making little use of Fohr's incredibly haunting, unique, and powerful voice.  Now, with In Plain Speech, she is largely repressing her previous experimental tendencies to make a somewhat straightforward "rock" album, except that it actually sounds like a fantasia on four or five different albums from the '70s rather than like anything happening now.  That said, she also sometimes sounds incredibly contemporary or betrays her background in ethnomusicology–the cryptic, feminist first single "Do The Dishes" sounds an awful lot like a Sublime Frequencies' Thailand compilation before the singing comes in.  I never know exactly where she is coming from or why she is choosing to come from there.  Essentially, the entire album is just a whole lot of disparate things bizarrely colliding together or the proverbial square peg relentlessly, inexplicably trying to fit into a round hole (best exemplified by the bombastic, yodeling vocal pyrotechnics at the end of the subdued folk rock of "A Story of This World").

The best analogy that I can come up with for In Plain Speech is that it is like watching someone learning how to use a rocket launcher: every fresh attempt is certainly a compelling display of force, but the target is hit only rarely.  While there are ostensibly nine songs, a third of them ("KT 1," "KT 5," and "Guitar Knife") are very brief (if likable) instrumentals.  Then another four pieces find Fohr and her band trying on various classic rock guises with varying degrees of success, ranging from quasi-operatic hard rock ("Ride Blind") to mellow Eastern-tinged psychedelia ("In The Late Afternoon").  There plenty of fine performances and explosive crescendos scattered about, but the bulk of the album is just too chameleonic, too bombastic, and too "rock" for me to like almost any pieces in their entirety.  I often found myself wondering who this album could possibly be for, as it is variously deeply personal, wildly over-the-top, and unable to ever fully commit to any one clear aesthetic.  It admittedly works as a show of force, but I just could not connect with anything that was happening on any kind of deep level.

There is, however, one notable exception: the nearly 8-minute centerpiece "Dream of TV."  Beginning with gently plucked viola, the piece gradually becomes a beautifully arranged reverie of quavering flutes, guitar noise, melancholy strings, and hallucinatory electronic chaos…and then the drums come in alongside Fohr’s beautifully warbling, wordless vocals and it transforms from merely great to absolutely sublime.  I also like "Do The Dishes" quite a bit, but it is primarily "Dream of TV" that highlights the amazing potential that Fohr has when surrounded by appropriately sympathetic and talented collaborators.  I suppose the unfortunate downside is that "TV" unintentionally highlights the shortcomings of the rest of the album, but it is also the first clear evidence that Haley can be a great composer in addition to being a powerful and unique voice. Ultimately, In Plain Speech is still a mostly flawed (or at least deeply perplexing) album, but it is one that boasts one of the finest songs that I have heard this year.

• Do The Dishes
• Dream of TV
• Fantasize The Scene

 

 

 

05 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Flying Saucer Attack release Instrumentals 2015, their first album in 15 years on Friday the 17th of July 2015. Comprised of 15 fresh David Pearce solo performances recorded in characteristically lo-fi manner at home, using guitars only on tape and CD-R, Instrumentals 2015 is an album that will appeal both to FSA diehards and those wholly unfamiliar with the outfit's recorded output.

The 15 tracks on Instrumentals 2015 present an impressionistic narrative which transports the listener through the excoriating dronescapes and rueful introspection of the album's early pieces to the more redemptive cadences of its closing half. Given its sense of momentum, maintained through Pearce's thoughtful sequencing, this is an album that should be experienced in its entirety, the better to appreciate its deliberate emotional arc.

More information can be found here.

05 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Think big, girl, like a king, think kingsize. Jenny Hval’s new record opens with a quote from the Danish poet Mette Moestrup, and continues towards the abyss. Apocalypse, girl is a hallucinatory narrative that exists somewhere between fiction and reality, a post-op fever dream, a colourful timelapse of death and rebirth, close-ups of impossible bodies — all told through the language of transgressive pop music.

When Norwegian noise legend Lasse Marhaug interviewed Jenny Hval for his fanzine in early 2014, they started talking about movies, and the conversation was so interesting that she asked him to produce her next record. It turned out that talking about film was a great jumping off point for album production. Hval’s songs slowly expanded from solo computer loops and vocal edits to contributions from bandmates Håvard Volden and Kyrre Laastad, before finally exploding into collaborations with Øystein Moen (Jaga Jazzist/Puma), Thor Harris (Swans), improv cellist Okkyung Lee and harpist Rhodri Davis. All of these musicians have two things in common: they are fierce players with a great ear for intimacy, and they hear music in the closing of a suitcase as much as in a beautiful melody.

And so Apocalypse, girl is a very intimate, very visual beast. It dreams of an old science fiction movie where gospel choir girls are punks and run the world with auto-erotic impulses. It’s a gentle hum from a doomsday cult, a soft desire for collective devotion, an ode to the close-up and magnified, unruly desires.

Jenny Hval has developed her own take on intimate sound since the release of her debut album in 2006. Her work, which includes 2013's critically celebrated Innocence Is Kinky (Rune Grammofon), has gradually incorporated books, sound installations and collaborations with poets and visual artists. For Hval, language is central, always torn between the vulnerable, the explosive and total humiliation.

More information can be found here.

05 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

»sleepstep« is the first collaboration between raster-noton and dasha rush. the record's subtitle »sonar poems for my sleepless friends« describes its underlying concept – »sleepstep« is a trip through electronically alienated micro-compositions and sound collages that, interwoven with text passages, aim at creating a dream-like atmosphere.

the stations of this journey are striving for oblivion of time, an immersion, a drifting in universal states – death, life, birth, grief, desire. the titles often appear to be raw sketches, fugitive, surreal short stories that rather want to break open than execute.

the musical arrangement, in this context, can be described as rather subtle and fragile. though electronically manipulated, no production technique is pushing itself to the fore. and though clichés are not dreaded, »sleepstep«, as a result, stays away from being cliché. the sonar poems for her sleepless friends are feminine, subtle and personal reports. a musical dream journey in the form of a classical concept record – an album that also stands in the tradition of ambient music.

dasha rush is already known as a techno dj and producer. here on »sleepstep«, she celebrates her alter ego. the cd version comes with a 32-pages booklet that also shows her photographic interest and includes the aforementioned poems written by her.

more information can be found here.

05 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

It has been seven years since Audika last issued an album of Arthur Russell material. The wait ends this summer with Corn, nine tracks Russell recorded in 1982 and 1983. In collaboration with Russell’s partner Tom Lee, Audika’s Steve Knutson compiled Corn from Arthur’s original, completed 1/4” tape masters. Russell himself compiled this material on three separate test pressings—labeled El Dinosaur, Indian Ocean, and Untitled, respectively— in 1985.

Russell fans know something of the Corn sound from Audika’s debut release, Calling Out of Context (2004), which included four songs from these sessions: "The Deer In The Forest Part 1," "The Platform on the Ocean," "Calling Out Of Context," and "I Like You!"

This new collection includes rhythmic alternate versions of "Lucky Cloud," "Keeping Up," "See My Brother, He's Jumping Out (Let's Go Swimming #2)," "This Is How We Walk on the Moon," and "Hiding Your Present From You," along with "Corn," "Corn (Continued)," "They and Their Friends," and the closing instrumental "Ocean Movie," one of the most beautiful and curious Russell tracks ever to see the light of day.

With Corn, Audika reveals yet another side of Russell’s staggeringly diverse artistry, following the avant-electrodisco of Calling Out Of Context, and its companion EP, Springfield; the orchestral works "Instrumentals" and "Tower Of Meaning,” compiled and released as First Thought Best Thought; the "Buddhist Bubble Gum Pop" collected on Love Is Overtaking Me; and Russell’s definitive solo masterpiece, World Of Echo.

TRACK LISTING - ALL VERSIONS PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED:

• Lucky Cloud 5:04
• Corn 2:34
• Keeping Up 2:07
• See My Brother, He’s Jumping Out (Let’s Go Swimming #2) 5:31
• This Is How We Walk On The Moon 7:12
• Corn (Continued) 9:54
• Hiding Your Present From You 5:17
• They And Their Friends 3:20
• Ocean Movie 3:20
  
  More information can be found here.

05 June 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

I think I can safely guarantee that no one familiar with Ren Schofield’s work has ever wondered what a new Container album might sound like, nor have they likely exhausted much time wondering about what its title would be: LP is yet another dose of no-frills, bludgeoning, percussive, and noise-damaged anti-dance.  The only real change is Schofield has become a bit more skilled, a bit wilder, and a lot more aggressive since his last album.  Part of me admittedly misses the more "human"-speed, mid-tempo grooves of past Container albums, but LP is probably Ren’s best work in this vein by a landslide, as he has trimmed down his song lengths and dramatically ratcheted up his visceral intensity.  This is an absolutely bulldozing album.

Editions Mego/Spectrum Spools

For a former noise artist, Schofield has very unusual approach to his strain of noise-damaged dance music.  For one, it is not particularly noisy: the 7 pieces on LP are certainly unmelodic and corroded-sounding, but Ren tends to conjure up his chaos in quite a controlled way.  There are no blasts of white noise or electronic entropy, just a lot of meticulously crafted grooves enhanced by some very blown-out textures and plenty of machine-like, relentlessly inhuman repetition.  Equally noteworthy is the fact that Schofield seems to be quite an astute student of techno rather than any kind of dabbler, as he rarely even nods towards simple house beats and unwaveringly manipulates the dynamics of his grooves like a damn wizard: elements are constantly and systematically added and subtracted in service of maximizing impact at all times.  Ren never lazily rides a groove.  Once in a while, he might slow down or get a bit quieter, but it is always to either make space for a cool motif or to set the stage for the next onslaught.

Aside from those few pieces that slow down enough to lock into satisfying head-bobbing grooves and give Ren room to unleash his fine arsenal of squawks, whines, crackles, and grinding noise textures, the bulk of LP careens along at a breakneck pace.  He definitely seems to relish maintaining a pace that is just a little too fast and much too manic to fully resemble music intended for human dancing.  That impish propensity is what makes LP so compelling for me, as Schofield has found a way to make the beats themselves feel like an assault without resorting to brute force or hackneyed industrial tropes.  These pieces are certainly propulsive and fun, but they are also a bit too deranged and relentless to elicit anything resembling a "good time" vibe.  That, of course, makes it even more fun for me.  Apparently, this album is the one most closely resembles a Container live show, which makes me desperately want to seek one out: Schofield has ingeniously staked out the perfect blend of "I came to get this party started" and "I came to end this party and possibly destroy the building."

Choosing a highlight is hard, as each of these pieces is very much cut from the same cloth and strong hooks are simply not a part of Ren's agenda: he just locks into a groove, kicks ass, and then moves onto the next song long before he overstays his welcome.  LP is just 7 flavors of streamlined, dynamic, and perfectly chiseled pummeling.  If I had to pick, however, I would say that the stumbling, mid-tempo "Calibrate" locks into an especially satisfying locked-groove-style beat.  Another strong moment is the album's "single": the throbbing, skittering, and out-of-control "Eject."  The whole album is quite solid and utterly devoid of anything resembling filler or a misstep, however.  If LP can be said to have a flaw, it is only that Container's niche is an incredibly specific and limited one.  Schofield definitely makes the most of those rigid constraints though–I cannot think of a single aspect of LP that possibly could have been better executed.

Samples:

• Eject
• Remover
• Calibrate

 

31 May 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Ramiro Jeancarlo's solo project has only been active for a few years, but with these releases the Miami artist has refined his own insular version of electronic music with the assistance of a sprawling vintage synth collection. This album captures his two primary styles: weird electronic experiments and catchy, song-like pop outings. Even though the overall feel may be different, Jeancarlo manages to tie them together to result in a diverse, yet unified sounding album.

Nostilevo

In general, the first half of El Mago En Ti is where the abstract and more disjointed synth experiments happen.The opening of "Drowning Feathers" keeps time with snappy, sparse percussion and sweeping keyboards, but the overall sound is sad and desolate, with the nearly indecipherable vocals adding to this sense of seclusion.Jeancarlo slowly adds more and more to the mix to flesh it out, but it retains its cold, disoriented feel to it.Comparatively, "Spherical Aberration" has a doomier, more dissonant sense throughout.With an isolated and uncomfortable sounding vocal performance, the piece is largely dominated by a menacing, bass heavy electronic sound that gives a distinct rawness.

The B side of the record is where the more conventional sounding compositions are placed."Addiction" may have a thin rhythm track and simple bassline, but with the addition of vocals and a shimmering synth melody, it results in a piece that sounds more like a conventional song than an electronic experiment."Anima Sola" is also driven by a more up-tempo drum machine, and focused largely on a noisy, buzzing analog synth pattern.It is still dark and depressive overall, but the result is more easily latched on to because of the sense of composition.

The second half may be overall somewhat more musical, Jeancarlo still sneaks in an obtuse moment with "Fistful Questioning."There is a loose sense of organization, but the focus is largely on rapid skittering and pulsing synthesizers.Considering the overall mix of the piece is a bit strange as well, it stands out strangely as a throwback to the first half of the record.He closes the album with "La Gran Evasion," the closest he manages to come to traditional electronic music.An instrumental work with more conventional rhythm sequences and a ghostly synth lead, it is an extremely strong, if slightly repetitive (like most dance music) way to end a superlative album.

With a nice balance between experimental miniatures on one half and conventional songs on the other (and an appropriate amount of crossover), El Mago En Ti is a strong piece of eclectic electronic music.With just enough hooks to grab my pop loving side, but a wide berth of experimentation and eccentric sounds, the stylistic balance is very strong and pulls the record together extremely well.

samples:

• Drowning Feathers
• Addiction
• La Grand Evasion

 

31 May 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Florida is not known for hosting a secret enclave of synth bands, but this split cassette tape indicates that there are at least a few projects hiding amongst the tourist traps and meth labs. Burnt Hair and Ars Phoenix both work with similar instrumentation but the final product differ drastically between the two. The latter makes for catchy, if a bit bleak, pop songs while the former is depressive, bedroom electronics, resulting in a wonderful combination of similarities and differences.

Dead Tank/Popnihil

Being a former resident of the state, these two artists have a sound that suits their geographic locations within Florida.Burnt Hair, from the larger and more inland city of Jacksonville, has a fittingly isolated and lonely sensibility to it.A larger city where the metropolitan and redneck meet is sure to be despairing for any artist.Conversely, Ars Phoenix hails from the east coast of Vero Beach, and their more pop-oriented sound fits the fun and tourist-y feel, at least superficially.But, just like the region itself, there is a distinct darkness that lurks behind the sunny melodies and memorable choruses.

The four songs on Burnt Hair's half of the tape are largely characterized by sparse, dour synthesizer passages and muffled vocals that sound like they were recorded from a closet on the other side of the studio."Tired Fingers Slip" exemplifies this, with the addition of a basic drum program that gives it a lurching sense of rhythm while still retaining an icy character.On "Stems" the duo of Matthew and Trenton Tarpits put a bit more emphasis on the programmed rhythms and a utilize a simple toy piano like melody that goes along way in its frigid, basic structure.The closing "Left to Chance" is the only time that the sound takes on a less depressive character.It may only be in relative terms, but the more pronounced drum machine and louder vocals, combined with the noisier keyboard passages result in a more aggressive, standout piece.

Ars Phoenix, for their four songs, continue to build upon the dark, yet engaging synth pop style they demonstrated heavily on their recent Violet Rain album.The fast pace of "Desiccation" contrasts BH's half of the tape, and while the vocals are echo-laden here as well, they are much more discernible and the duet vocals of Jon Glover andCaitlin Ollinger are just as memorable here as they were on the last album."Beckett’s Row" takes on a slower pace, but with the song’s up front vocals and expansive melodies it results in a very memorable composition.For "Minister Edwards," what sounds like a guitar becomes one of the central instruments, providing an excellent melodic lead and, with its liberal use of reverb, takes on a bit of a shoegaze quality.

The two halves of Shinju may differ in style, but pairing these two artists together makes for a diverse, yet still overall somber release.Burnt Hair's depressive bedroom synth sound hits the spot perfectly on those gray, overcast days, and like their previous album, Ars Phoenix's melodic and catchy sound continues to keep my attention, while still maintaining a sinister undercurrent that gives it significant depth.It may be a bit bipolar, but it is an excellent split tape.

samples:

• Tired Fingers Slip (Burnt Hair)
• Stems (Burnt Hair)
• Desiccation (Ars Phoenix)
• Minister Edwards (Ars Phoenix)

 

27 May 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Bliscord is the official new project from former Light Asylum synth virtuoso, Bruno Coviello. Check out the new music video for "Ready 2 Burn" featuring vocals by Michael Beharie. The video was directed & edited by Daniel McKernan incorporating hand-processing techniques of direct filmmaking with 16mm found footage from a tutorial on what children should do: "In Case of Fire." The track is slated for release on Formlessness Press, details TBA.