The Dutch duo Beequeen has been digging into their archives lately,discouraging the collector-scum by making their rare releases andconcert recordings available to the public in greater quanity. I'vebeen a fan of both members' work for many years. Freek Kinkelaar'sLegendary Pink Dots-ish solo recordings as Brunnen yeilded three finealbums in the 1990s, and Frans de Waard's many recordings as KapotteMuziek, Quest, Shifts, and Captain Black are things I have beenenthusiastically seeking out since I was in high school (a long timeago, folks). The Beequeen sound is generally a lush, subtly melodicdrone with subdued electronic crackle, a nice inbetween point betweende Waard's abstractions and Kinkelaar's low-key pop sense. This latestdisc compiles music intended for release in 1998, four tracks that wereto be released as an LP and two that were to be an unlikelycollaborative 10" with Japanese noise "band" MSBR. The first four tracks are delicate, with a gentle nudge toward dub thatnever overwhelms the static drift. The sound dives almost to silence,but percolates upwards with a bassline here or a slight rise there, alltasteful, understated, and appealing. It reminds me of Eno's ambientmusic, which colors the tone of a room but does not assert itself somuch. The collaborative tracks with MSBR, in which the artists workedby reshaping each other's sonic material, are not as ephemeral as thetracks that come before them, but are complementary nonetheless.Beequeen's reworking of MSBR's noise begins with some teeth-grindingtension, which is quickly forced down to a low, barely perceptiblerumble. MSBR's mix of Beequeen sounds like a digital cut-up that twistswith a distinct feeling as if it is about to explode out of control,yet never does.
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