KALMA, "EMBARASSED"

Brian Herman and DonnaDragotta have returned to NYC (from Florida) to launch the Diskosquidlabel and release their first CD as Kalma, a somewhat mysteriouscollective project recorded together with a bunch of other friends. Stunned at the professionalism and splendor of this debutrelease, there is most definitely promise for this new group and thelabel itself. The album's design and layout, first of all, are uniquemirror-image minimalist photos of sandy and icy tree scenes. The musicrivals old school Autechre with complex beat structures along withAphex Twin's home-grown sound ideas. The opening track, "FoamSpraying," is a nice intro into the disc - droney foamy noises thatbuild. The rest of the disc is a whole array of electronic reaches:beat-driven head-spinners, crackly soundscapes, and walls of curiousliquidy noises. One flaw is that the does disc seems to go on for a bittoo long, perhaps because there are thirteen different tracks, and afew clock in at around ten minutes, but it truly doesn't interfere withthe quality of the album overall. If this sounds like your cup of tea,definitely support this release, though, and keep your eye on the DiskoSquid label in the future. www.diskosquid.net

samples:

• Suction
• Glamerousss Sundresss
• Free Basing Pimp Toe

Read More