05 March 2016

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Albums and Singles

In 2014 Lattimore received a prestigious fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage — a rare honor given to 12 people every year — and used the funds to take a road trip across America with a friend, writing and recording songs at each stop along the way. With her harp and laptop, Lattimore drew inspiration from each location, letting the environments in which she recorded color her work. The result is evocative, delicate and haunting music, Lattimore’s harp at times bright and skipping, other times distant and hazy, swathed in gauzy delay.

She recorded much of At the Dam in the beautiful setting of Joshua Tree. “I would wheel the harp out on to the porch of my friend Chiara’s little house and I had the whole desert around me. It felt like a residency on another planet.” Lattimore also recorded in Marfa, Texas at a friends home, as well as in the mountains of Altadena, east of LA.

Recording far away from her Philadelphia home gave Lattimore space to navigate her thoughts. The stirring, slightly ominous opener "Otis Walks Into the Woods" attempts to encapsulate her reaction to the news that her family’s blind dog had walked into the forest on the outskirts of their farm to pass away – a gently hypnotic ode to a noble companion.  "Jimmy V" recalls another fallen hero, basketball coach Jimmy Valvano. "Before taking the road trip, I’d seen a great documentary on him, a really interesting and complex, inspiring character, and thought I’d write a song with him in mind," Mary says, "Maybe it’s the first harp song written about a basketball coach?" On “Jaxine Drive,” a guitar sighs, low and sorrowful beneath Lattimore's hopeful-sounding harp, while "Ferris Wheel, January" imagines one looking at the Pacific Ocean from high elevation and the patterns of the waves creating an illusion resembling the bright lights of the Santa Monica Pier in winter.  "It's a travel diary," explains Lattimore, "A chunk of my life that I attempted to wrangle into a recorded language that feels familiar but not too precious."

At The Dam is named for a Joan Didion essay about the Hoover Dam: "its enchanting, grandiose practicality, how it will keep operating in its own solitude, even when humans aren’t around." Drawing inspiration from these ideas and treating each memory thoughtfully and sensitively, Lattimore captures transient moments as time moves inexorably forward.

More information can be found here.

05 March 2016

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Albums and Singles

After having the NME announce him as "one to watch for 2015," Mark Wynn promptly quit music. Harbinger Sound spent the summer coaxing him out from early retirement and the result is The Singles album. A compilation of 18 tracks culled from two years worth of limited self-released CDs. Wynn's scattershot avant-skank acoustic gobshitting blends despair, bleakness and humour. It then pulls apart any worthless comparisions to The Fall, Wreckless Eric, Patrik Fitzgerald, etc with his irreverent, awkward but smart lo-fi songs. After spending the autumn touring with the Sleaford Mods , Wynn is now back in the game as one to watch for 2016. This album features such classics as "Rip Off The Fall" and "She Fancies Me That One In Age Concern."

"The same grey fucking cloud that followed me now hangs above him. He's got it!" - Jason Williamson / Sleaford Mods.

More information can be found here.

29 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

Like her last record (2013's Character) and much of her solo material, Asperities is Kent, her cello, and a tasteful amount of processing and effects. While her list of collaborators are a veritable who’s-who of modern experimental music, her solo work is just as strong, but stripped down and intimate enough to place all the emphasis on her and her instrument. These restrained arrangements, however, serve to bring out the finest and most nuanced details in her playing and strong sense of composition.

Leaf

Unsurprisingly, the deep, at times friction-laden sound of bowed cello strings feature heavily throughout the nine pieces that make up Asperities.Opener "Hellebore" exemplifies this, with its mostly untreated passages being slowly layered atop one another.The sound and dynamics are clearly that of a traditional cello, but eventually the swells become a massive, cavernous wall of tense music that fails to relent until its conclusion."Heavy Eyes" is another song in which the traditional sounds of Kent's instrument remain at he forefront, with the other elements making for subtle, but effective accents.

Compositions such as "Flag of No Country" and "Invitation to the Voyage" feature Kent opting for plucked, rather than bowed playing, and have a less tonal, more overall rhythmic feel.Both of these pieces, however, feature her blending in the more sustained tones (both via her playing style and through effects) as a backdrop to the mix, resulting in rich works that carry the same intensity as a much larger ensemble would struggle to meet.On a song like "Lac Des Arcs," both her playing and the arrangements take on a more somber, bleak sensibility, which contrasts the more boisterous, aggressive pieces on the album extremely well."Empty States" is similar, with an overall murky mix to the song, which starts from slow, heavy creaking noises and expands into a more intense, fleshed out piece with a tasteful amount of distortion at the end.

I found most memorable were the pieces where she expanded upon just focusing on the cello and into other instrumentation and heavier sonic treatments.The early moments of "Terrain" embody this perfectly, where a jerky synthetic rhythm underscores deep, churning layers of cello to create an amazing, tangible sense of tension that builds and grows even once the rhythms are removed.The concluding "Tramontana" also features a bit more in the way of processing and effects, with bits of delay and reversed playing fleshing the song out before concluding on an aggressively dissonant note, both in her playing and her processing of the sound.

Julia Kent's solo work has always emphasized the sound of her singular cello playing above most other instrumentation, and Asperities is no different.Because of that, anyone who is not a fan of the instrument (and it being the primary focus of an album) may not find this record as engaging.However, her sense of composition and virtuoso playing ability results in an always changing and evolving piece of music, and the record ends up being a much more diverse endeavor than it may seem.Kent captures a plethora of moods and emotions here, in a way that few artists who focus so heavily on a single instrument can.

samples:

• Hellebore
• Terrain
• Tramontana

 

29 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

The titular MB on this record is not the Italian noise pioneer, but GOG's Michael Bjella with Robert Skrzyński (of Micromelancolié) in collaboration. Black Box Recordings may not resemble Bianchi in any obvious way, but the duo have a similar raison d'être of utilizing purely dissonant electronics, roughly recorded found sounds, and the occasional interjection of conventional melody and instrumentation. Like its title would indicate, it is a bleak and disturbing collection of sounds that could easily be the final recordings of a cataclysmic event.

Instruments of Discipline

The dynamics of this record sit somewhere between the harsh dissonance of the noise world and the more reserved, spacious setting of an ambient record.For example, the short "Homes in Paris" is an idiosyncratic collage of found, but unidentifiable noises and incidental sound effects.But even within these abrasive layers, processed electronics and droning moments bring an oddly comfortable set of music and placidity to the otherwise heavy chaos.

On other pieces, the noisier tendencies of the duo’s sound stays in the forefront."Black Box Recording" sounds as if much of the recording is culled from its title, based upon what sounds like bursts of static and radio communication noise, but never fully discernible dialog or human voices.Layers of low fidelity recordings, bursts of noise, and explosions results in the two artists’ conveying the harrowing nature of a flight recorder capturing the first few moments of a catastrophic disaster.

Other moments, however, make for more of a transition between the harsher and melodic moments."Tearing Up" is all dark and lurching loops, at first just uncomfortably dissonant but amped up with static and distortion go become even more chaotic.Interestingly, towards the conclusion some clean guitar playing from Bjella glides to the forefront with a somber, beautiful tone that gives the song’s title two distinctly different interpretations depending on its pronunciation."Yes the Enduring Classics" is built from cavernous, almost musical loops as layers of noise are piled atop.Both the melodic and chaotic moments are magnified by the inclusion of what sounds like cello and metallic percussion, and straddles that line perfectly.

The two choose to close the album on a dourer, disturbing note on the lengthy "The Brighter Side of Fucking History".Opening with massively reverberating water drips and rattling noises with bass-heavy, subterranean rumbles, it captures the ambience of an expansive, disused concrete basement.Some oddly treated synthesizer passages drift in and out, with strange metallic scrapes and mechanical clattering making for an unsettling piece of moody ambiguity that excels in both its composition and its insinuated creepiness.

I am more familiar with Michael Bjella's work as GOG, and while a different beast, Black Box Recordings still bears his mark in the same way his primary project does.With less of the heavy metal elements and increased noise contributions from Skrzyński, it is an album of blackened industrial noise and experimentation that may have a familiar mood, but an entirely fresh and innovative sound in its execution.

samples:

• Tearing Up
• Black Box Recording
• The Brighter Side of Fucking History

 

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

"Zinging, absolutely deadly 7-track EP from Micachu on her return to DDS, featuring three tracks with Tirzah (including the much sought-after Go), plus a Demdike Stare Edit.

DDS render a precious haul of new Micachu zingers on her return to the label, ramped up by Demdike Stare's dextrous edit of "I Dare You" to chase up 2014’s acclaimed Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill LP for mutant dancefloors and sun-kissed headphone journeys.

Smitten by the hugely addictive, brilliantly slippery 2-step twister on Go, Demdike suggested the cut for release on DDS, and were subsequently privileged to peruse the unique space-time folds and dance/pop sampledelia of Mica’s archive.

As they also found out whilst compiling her last solo LP; it is a deeply rewarding experience to explore the Mica’s output: immersing themselves in her peerless world of refractive colours, sawn-off textures and teasing arrangements.

They’ve emerged with a joyously unhinged party-ready EP, traversing the mercurial 2-step viscosity of Mica & Tirzah’s "Go," to their addictively sticky ohrwurm, "Dare You," and the free cosmic pop whorl of "Trip6love," before taking in the clanking ragga jag of "More Red" with Brother May, a.k.a. the London-based MC who voiced Mica’s Fact Mix 444 in 2014.

The cherry on top is a crucial Demdike edit of "I Dare You," featuring Miles and Sean extending and swerving the original just like they would with two copies of the 12"."

-via Boomkat

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

"Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis" is a new composition from Catherine Christer Hennix's expanded just-intonation ensemble, the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage. This expanded ensemble includes vocalists Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan and Amirtha Kidambi, an expanded brass section with the addition of Paul Schwingesnschlögl and Elena Kakaliagou as well as the additon of Marcus Pal and Stefan Tiedje on electronics.

Out March 18th, 2016.   More information will soon be found here.

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

Central Palace Music, performed by Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble The Deontic Miracle, is the first in a series of archival Hennix releases to be issued via IMPREC. This previously unheard piece was taken from an eight day festival organized in the Spring of 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. The group features Catherine Christer Hennix on Renaissance oboe and custom sinewave generators, Peter Hennix on Renaissance oboe and Hans Isgren on sheng.

Central Palace Music is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed package and is being released at the same time as a recent recording of Hennix's new ensemble live at Issue Project Room.

"...Hennix has created a sound that reliably taps into our subconscious and frees us from linear time..." The Quietus

Out March 18th, 2016.  More information will soon be found here.

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

The way I see it, there are only three possible reactions to the statement "Matmos just made an entire album from recordings of their washing machine."  The first, which was my reaction, is "Yes!"  The other two, of course,  are "Ugh-of course they did." and "Who?"  What I am getting at here is that Ultimate Care II sounds exactly like everyone will expect it to sound, which is (naturally) exactly like a Matmos album: part conceptual art, part bizarro dance party, part abstract experimentation, and part willfully ridiculous (they let the actual rinse cycle play out unmolested for several minutes at one point).  The only real surprise for me was that Ultimate Care II is just a single extended piece that loosely mirrors the stages of a single wash cycle.  That one piece covers a lot of strange and varied stylistic ground, however, veering wildly from pummeling junkyard percussion to Looney Tunes to musique concrète to Love's Secret Domain-era Coil within a single 38-minute span.  Predictably, it is a wild ride indeed and precisely the type of album that no one but Matmos could (or would) ever make.

Thrill Jockey

While Ultimate Care II is unquestionably a quintessential "Matmos" album, Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt did not make it alone, enlisting the aid of several guests from around the Baltimore area including Dan Deacon and members of Horse Lords, Needle Gun, and Half Japanese.  To their credit, some of the guests even earned some serious washing machine cred beforehand by periodically doing their laundry at the Matmos house.  Aside from generally being a fun project, the involvement of so many people in this quixotic endeavor served a practical purpose as well: every sound on Ultimate Care comes from the washing machine itself, so recruiting talented collaborators was a useful way of coming up with enough interesting ideas to fill an album.  Unsurprisingly, quite a few of the sounds on Ultimate Care sound recognizably like a washing machine, while many others exploit the machine’s rich percussive potential.  Then, of course, there are many others that veer so far off the tracks that it is hard to believe their origin.

The magic, of course, lies in how those myriad sounds are combined and how all the various motifs evolve into one another.  Many of the best parts sound positively raucous, as the duo prove particularly adept at combining stomping and plinking rhythms into a fun quasi-industrial dance party.  Also, the crazier and wonkier the grooves get, the better.  Most of Ultimate Care’s best moments occur when Schmidt and Daniel settle into a weirdly funky and stumbling groove filled with kooky bleeps and buzzes.  Infectious rhythms aside, the other highlights tend to be the gutsier and/or more surprising moments.  For example, there is an admittedly non-gutsy, yet completely unexpected interlude where the piece coheres into an absolutely beautiful passage that resembles a haunting glass harmonica performance.  More frequently, however, Ultimate Care reaches its greatest heights when it just gets go-for-broke bonkers.  Like, for example, when it sounds like jungle-themed exotica made by a mental patient.  That thankfully happens more than once and it is absolutely glorious every time.

Of course, not every idea that found its way onto Ultimate Care was entirely brilliant.  Some of the more straightforwardly pummeling percussion passages definitely left me a bit cold, as they are a bit too bombastic for such a fundamentally absurd venture.  Admittedly, they can be quite visceral, but I do not like Matmos because they can sound like Test Dept. if they want to–I like them because they are imaginative and unique.  I was also not wild about a blurting passage that sounded like a computer throwing up, as it was only interesting because it was made from a washing machine.  Conversely, however, I actually did enjoying the few sections that basically sounded like untreated washing machine recordings.  In my defense, if washing machines did not sound cool, Matmos probably would not have made this album.  I am not ruling out the possibility that I am becoming an easily amused simpleton, however.  In any case, the good parts far outweigh the bad and none of the weaker moments stick around for long.  Also, I would be crazy to expect a flawless, seamless longform composition made from a goddamn washing machine: Daniel and Schmidt are primarily experimenters and Ultimate Care is essentially a series of wild set pieces that flow together surprisingly well.  I am sure there will be plenty of better compositions this year than Ultimate Care, but I doubt many of them will rack up quite as many memorable highlights along the way.

• Excerpt One
• Excerpt Two
• Excerpt Three

 

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

Blackest Ever Black presents a new vinyl edition of Af Ursin’s 2005 masterpiece Aura Legato, and its first outings on CD and digital formats.

Af Ursin is the alter ego of Finnish autodidact composer/improviser Timo van Luijk. He began his musical activities in the mid-1980s, co-founding the Noise-Maker’s Fifes collective with Geert Feytons in ’89. During the ’90s he developed his solo work under the name Af Ursin, before establishing his private press, La Scie Dorée, in 2001. It continues to act as the main platform for his own music, including regular collaborations with Christoph Heeman (as In Camera) and Andrew Chalk (as Elodie), while his other label, Metaphon (run with Marc Wroblewski and Greg Jacobs), is focused on archival presentations from the likes of Michael Ranta, Joris de Laet, and IPEM.

Van Luijk’s work is rooted in the use of acoustic instruments (wind, percussion, strings), but his special sensitivity to the timbral qualities of each instrument, and his deft blurring of them, results in a sound-world that is mysterious, amorphous and hallucinatory, full of suggestive shadows, creaks and whispers. Informed by years of intensive listening to various types of free music, exploratory drug use and especially the “irregular organic forms” of the Belgian countryside where he resides, van Luijk’s process begins always with pure improvisation: music played in an intuitive, sensual way, without the employment of conscious technique. He performs and overdubs each instrumental component himself, and out of this process micro-structures and loose arrangements emerge: the piece becomes an improvised composition. Over time he has evolved his own richly poetic musical language, full of allusions to drone, acid folk, classical, Musique concrète and jazz, but beholden to none.

Originally released on La Scie Dorée in 2005, in an edition of 350 copies, Aura Legato is one of van Luijk’s darker and more acutely psychedelic offerings. It’s a work of profound interiority, but one that also conjures images of old Europe and fin-de-siècle decadence – dabblings in Thelema, the fog of the opium-den – and has earned telling, if inadequate, comparisons to Third Ear Band, Nurse With Wound, Mirror and HNAS. Fully remastered by Noel Summerville, the album has never sounded better, and our vinyl edition replicates the original’s ornate presentation: sleeve die-cut in the style of a 78rpm record, with gold detailing and individually hand-glued labels. Due to be released in May 2016, we urge you to acquaint yourself with what is, unmistakably, a modern classic.

More information can be found here.

28 February 2016

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Albums and Singles

A new long-form offering of poignant, isolationist machine music from Secret Boyfriend. Eschewing the cryptic and compact song-sketches that characterised his 2013 Blackest Ever Black LP, This Is Always Where You’ve Lived, Ryan Martin instead guides us through vast interior topographies and nerve-damaged ambiences that comfort and deceive like memory itself.

Beginning with "The Singing Bile" – minimal synth submerged and subjected to an almost oceanic pressure – the tracks are mostly crude, extended live improvisations, recorded straight to tape. Martin’s loose intention was to subtract himself from proceedings and “let the music play itself”, but the erasure is not quite complete: on the contrary, each piece feels distinctly authored, and charged with personal significance. The atrophying loops of "Memorize Them Well"broach the elegiac grandeur of Gas and William Basinski, while "Paean Delle Palme" summons E.A.R., Af Ursin, and the clammy, opioid exoticism of :zoviet*france:*’s Just An Illusion. The album is largely instrumental, but there are two weighty exceptions: the sprawling, drumbox-driven space blues of "Little Jammy Centre" and the guileless yearning of "Stripping At The Nail." This is electronic pop undressed, unravelled and mapped onto the infinite wave.

Expansive and enveloping, Memory Care Unit's offer of comfort and refuge is difficult to resist. But this amniotic idyll is frayed and haunted at its edges, and ultimately treacherous. The return to innocence it promises may be possible, but the price is separation, alienation and loss.

More information can be found here.