25 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

ARTIST CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA
TITLE MOON LIGHT REFLECTING OVER MOUNTAINS
LABEL ROOM40
CAT # RM465
FORMAT CD/DIGITAL
RELEASE DATE 30 MAY 2015

VIDEO (Prince Of The Sea)
AUDIO (Prince Of The Sea)
STORE

• Tokyo’s Chihei Hatakeyama draws broadly from aesthetic references, that traverse music of the past 30 years - loosely echoing the gliding motions of My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Cocteau Twins.
• Strummed acoustic guitars are cloaked in a soundscape that suggests a dwelling in the urban; sirens and voices clearly emerging as the piece meanders.
• Moon Light Reflecting Over Mountains is Hatakeyama's third release for Room40, following from previous efforts Mirror and Saunter.

24 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

Last year's A Unity of Miseries-A Misery of Unities grabbed me quickly and became one of my absolute favorite albums that came out in 2014. The songs that were re-recorded from their demo tape were excellent, and the new compositions that premiered on that record were even stronger. So of course I had high hopes for the Susan Subtract and Greg Vand's sophomore record, and I am not at all disappointed. Strong beats, glorious pawnshop synth sounds and memorable songwriting come together brilliantly on Definite Structures.

Dais

Quirky is not usually a term I associate with music in a good way, but honestly it is the best way to describe HFF.Too often quirky is a transparent attempt to be weird or random as an attention-seeking gimmick for bands that lack skill and/or talent.This duo's weirdness seems completely natural and unforced, however, and is simply another asset that helps them to stand out singularly in a world of imitators.Even as part of the big three LA bands leading the outsider EBM scene they are the odd ones out:Youth Code do the tattooed hardcore punk thing, Pure Ground have their wasteland dystopia vibe going, but HFF are the strange children of the '80s, doing their own thing and loving it.

In the year since their debut album came out, they have already made strides as far as cultivating their identity and sounding more self assured.While there are a litany of bands that could correctly or incorrectly be cited as influences on their sound, never do they sound like anyone else in particular.Via their unpopular Ensoniq synth fetishism and low fidelity samples, they have created their own sound and push it amazingly.

A defining feature of Definite Structures is that it hardly relents at all:all nine songs are pounding drums, jagged digital synthesizers and Subtract’s snarling punk yell.The closest thing to an introspective moment is the album opening "Hunger Cries."With the BPM turned down a bit and a slightly more restrained vocal performance, it takes on a nice chiming synth pop feel.All I could picture is the awkward, black veiled '80s goth kids dancing (awkwardly) at some weird prom in a John Hughes movie that was never made."Grey Scent" is only a bit less forceful than much of the album because of the calmer vocals and monotone half of its catchy chorus.

That is one of the other most striking facets of this album:simply how catchy the songs are.The first album showed a marked improvement between the songs from their demo compared to the ones recorded for that album, and this one is a similar jump.The duo's songwriting ability was never lacking, but they manage to create such memorable choruses and melodies.

Aggressive, dance floor packing rhythms and bass lines are what this album is all about though."Confuse the Call" appears here in a different mix than on the Strategies Against the Body compilation earlier this year, stripped down and with the emphasis placed on the drums and vocals, it hits even harder."Lattice of Coincidence" is especially memorable in the duo's pairing of a martial, aggressive bassline and a lighter, almost regal synth melodies, blending perfectly into its vocal-centric chorus.On "The Plunge" a similar mix of jagged synth pads and insistent scatter-shot drum programming contrasts excellently, propelled by Subtract's dry throated aggro screams and sputtering samples of unknown origin.

On an album packed with great songs, "Afterbirth" may be the one that stands out as its centerpiece.Underscored by a pummeling 4/4 kick drum, surrounded by more complex rhythms, the song has an undeniable stomping energy amplified by the aggressive vocals and strong chorus.It is one of those songs that are just completely infectious, and as soon as it kicks in I cannot help but give it my full attention.

One of this duo's biggest assets is that there is a sense of fun spread throughout their music.Not that it is a joke or that they do not take their art seriously, but more that they are not trying to exorcise personal demons or push some sort of political agenda (at least obviously).No, they want to dance, and they want the people who listen to the record to do the same.Plus there seems to be an understated tongue-in-cheekiness to their approach, much like Front 242 had but not quite as subtle.A sense of self-awareness in a genre that is heavily polarized between stone-faced seriousness or childish novelty acts.

There is nothing especially innovative or daring with Definite Structures, but there is not supposed to be. Like their previous album, it is a collection of nine pounding songs and catchy melodies that are just as appropriate for dancing as listening, thank to their undeniable earworm qualities.There might not be any significantly challenging moments to be heard, but the infectious melodies and memorable choruses make all of that moot anyway.As it was last year, there is another High-Functioning Flesh record that is likely to place extremely high on my favorite releases of the year list.

samples:

• Lattice of Coincidence
• Afterbirth
• Grey Scent

 

24 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

Andrew Hock has carved out a niche for himself as a guitarist for bands including Psalm Zero and the recently deceased Castevet, but this makes for his first truly solo release. Crystalline Privative Opulence, featuring additional wind instrumentation by Jeremiah Cymerman and Davindar Singh, showcases his skill with a guitar as well as electronics but more so his sense of composition amongst these two side-long songs.

Union Finale

The first of the two untitled compositions begins quite simply, with melodic, basic guitar strums filling the air.It is sparse and clean, and he slowly expands the sound.The melancholy, yet pure guitar sound continues for a while before being quickly mixed with a quieter, but more dissonant and messy backing loop of processed guitar.At first the melodic sound continues, but then it is pulled down into the noisy mire of distortion and loops.

What first began as gentle chiming guitar soon becomes a din of harshness and chaos that is all engulfing.Hock begins to emphasize the electronics above all else, resulting in a piece that is much more violent than it began.Full on horror movie shrieks and bizarre warbling noises become the standard, and even what sounds like a swarm of killer bees are introduced to further conjure terror.

The piece on the other side of the tape is less oppressive or menacing in comparison.While the guitar was the predominant theme on the first half, here the focus is on ominous and distant electronics.Woodwinds generate deep foghorn tones expanding through the mist.Hock fleshes out the open, foggy space by reintroducing his guitar to the mix, clean and melodic strumming that contrasts the droning background exceptionally well.In a mirroring of the way the first piece was constructed, the electronics give way here for the elegant guitar work to take the focus.Eventually he introduces a second guitar line, with just enough distortion and effects to make for a great contrast to the otherwise pristine sound before ending with what sounds like a bass guitar passage.

Guitar and electronics are the primary sounds throughout Crystalline Privative Opulence, but it is the way Hock (and his two collaborators) put these sounds together that makes this tape memorable.The slow building of the compositions, as well as the deliberate shifts between electronics and guitar keep the sound intriguing.Texture and melody meld together wonderfully, resulting in two pieces that shift and evolve wonderfully on his first solo work.

samples:

• Side A (Excerpt 1)
• Side A (Excerpt 2)
• Side B

 

24 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

Two of the three songs that comprise Fraufraulein's Extinguishment start with a single foundational sound. On "Whalebone in a Treeless Landscape," it is Anne Guthrie’s French horn that initiates the performance. Dripping water and the ring of a large, resonant metallophone follow immediately after. "My Left Hand, Your Right Hand" commences with a solitary, almost piercing electronic pitch, like an emergency broadcast signal stuck on a single wavering tone. After a few seconds, it is joined by an echoey snap, a distant singing voice, and the booming of a bass drum or a floor tom. They are both deceptively simple beginnings, richer in content and potential than their starkness implies. Billy Gomberg and Anne Guthrie treat them like seeds from which to grow and prune their compositions. They blend field recordings, of rain and a patriotic Norwegian parade for example, with scrapyard detritus, pair foghorn drones with the bristly friction of surface noise, and balance the eerie ambience of humming wires against a distorted monastic chant, all while maintaining a delicate connection with those first embryonic moments. The way they achieve that consonance and balance—between the acoustic and electronic instruments and in the structures of the songs themselves—defines the album.

Another Timbre

Extinguishment’s macrocosmic inclination is set down during the course of its opening piece, "Convention of Moss." Like the songs that follow, it is cobbled together from a combination of prerecorded audio and live instrumentation. Differentiating between live and prerecorded can be tricky, however. In concert, Anne and Billy play French horn and bass guitar respectively and use various digital methods to record and manipulate their own sounds on the fly. Thus, the white noise generated by blowing through a detached valve becomes a loop-able and transformable sample.

Watching it happen in real time makes following the aural lineage of different passages easier, but on record there can be no such discernment. Without a visual aid, the entire album, from the perspective of the listener at home, sounds as if it could be a series of prerecorded tapes arranged with a computer. On the other hand, it is possible that much of what seems digitally achieved is actually the product of an extended technique utilized inside the studio, like drawing corrugated wire across the bell of the French horn. There is simply no way to tell. Confusion like this renders the music’s canvas more absorbent, and new and unexpected elements enter the fray with the same ease and acceptance as a loud guitar solo entering a rock ‘n’ roll song. That is a feature in a lot of improvised electronic music, but Gomberg and Guthrie handle it gracefully and add something of their own to the equation, namely the derivation of structure and development from tone color and melody.

As wide open as Extinguishment is with respect to material, purpose and control still subsists in the duo’s dedication to form and spaciousness. After establishing a core sound or a core melody, Anne and Billy toy with it, adding harmonious elements to emphasize some of its features and introducing discord for the sake of contrast and equilibrium. Reshaping, repurposing, and reimagining those musical events is the secret logic behind each song, something that is made perfectly clear on "My Left Hand, Your Right Hand." The title hints at the way in which Gomberg and Guthrie mirror each other and the contents of their field recordings. The song’s opening high tone is first blended into, then replaced by a droning vocal melody. Next comes a French horn and voice duet, a high resonant whistle, and eventually an undulating pitch that could be either synthetic or acoustic. Each figure mimics the last one, maintaining some semblance of identity with what has passed while at the same time pushing the performance forward. At times, the field recordings seem to be in tune with the instruments and the electronics too, resonating at the same frequency or within the same key even when they are quiet or empty (think of the harmonic resonance of Alvin Lucier’s I Am Sitting in a Room).

All of this gives the music a tangible three dimensional quality. Anne Guthrie and Billy Gomberg connect the world outside to the world of music in a way that must by now be familiar, but they do an exceptional job of it, utilizing their tools and techniques to magnify apparently simple musical elements (and non-musical ones, too, if that distinction still holds) to the size of universes.

samples:

• Convention of Moss
• Whalebone in a Treeless Landscape
• My Left Hand, Your Right Hand

 

24 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

While they differ quite a bit in scope, concept, and volume, Carsten Nicolai's Xerrox series is a long-running and intriguing digital parallel to William Basinski's analog experiments in tape decay, taking samples and using custom software to make copy upon copy until the original sounds are deteriorated into unrecognizability.  The theme for this particular volume is "towards space," which leaves the earthbound inspirations of the first two volumes far behind for a nostalgia-soaked fantasia on the science-fiction films and shows that Carsten fondly remembers from his childhood.  Unsurprisingly, that results in an album that sounds an awful lot like a soundtrack, but it is an unexpectedly poignant and curiously neo-classical one.

Raster-Noton

It is an old music critic trope that artists tend to become less special once they become competent enough at their craft to sound like the artists that they were always trying to emulate.That thought ran through my head a lot as I listened to this album, as I suspect that Nicolai always secretly wanted to be a soundtrack composer, but grudgingly wound up as a successfully conceptual artist/experimental musician instead.As it turns out, he has a knack for the former vocation, as the lush and melancholy faux-strings of album highlights "Xerrox Helm Transphaser" and "Xerrox Isola" call to mind some of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s better work.Elsewhere, however, Carsten veers into sci-fi-damaged heavy drone ("Xerrox Radieuse") or brooding, echoing dark ambient atmosphere ("Xerrox Mesophere").

Despite touching upon so many disparate stylistic veins, the album admirably maintains a consistent "haunted space station" feel that befits one of its primary inspirations: Tarkovsky's Solaris.The only catch is that I do not understand how the resultant music is related at all to the elaborate process used for its creation.  For the most part, Xerrox, Vol. 3 sounds like it could have easily been made with a synthesizer and a laptop, aside from a few especially hissing or sputtering textures–whether a chord was played on a keyboard or borrowed from a McDonald's commercial seems largely irrelevant here.  That does not diminish the album in any way, but it is odd that Carsten elected to make a somewhat straightforward album in such a complicated, concept-heavy way that does not seem to have noticeably informed the outcome.My guess is that he has just made exploiting chance and impersonal technology a life-choice and that he finds the constraint useful.

Another noteworthy aspect to Xerrox, Vol. 3 is that the most conventionally musical moments tend to be the best.I did not expect that.  While pieces like "Xerrox Helm Transphaser" certainly benefit from their gurgling, hissing, and crackling peripheral textures, the primary appeal lies in the warmly melancholy swells of appropriated strings.Carsten is at his best when he finds a strong balance between melodic hooks, texture, and entropy, which he does about a third of the time.The rest of the album is a bit less memorable, but that is primarily because he is aiming for a subdued and mysterious mood rather than due to any clumsiness or lack of good ideas.That makes Xerrox, Vol. 3 somewhat complicated for me, as it is a complete success as a complex and understated work that is alternately sublime, bittersweet, and forlorn.  That makes it a major leap forward for Carsten as a composer.  It also makes it an objective success from start to finish.

Subjectively, however, I have very mixed feelings about it.   I love the bleary, corroded Romanticism of "Xerrox Isola" and quavering beauty of "Xerrox Radieuse," both of which wildly exceeded my expectations.A few other pieces are quite good as well.Overall, however, Xerrox, Vol. 3 seems like a weirdly tame album to me–I like it for what it is, but it is a bit disappointing as a long-awaited Alva Noto album.I desperately wanted to like it more than I did.That said, my personal expectations are not Nicolai’s burden–he naturally made the album that he wanted rather than the album that I wanted.  In a couple of instances, those expectations overlap delightfully, but this is otherwise not the six-years-in-the-making tour de force that I was hoping for. However, I suspect that a lot of other people will rank this very highly within Carsten's discography and I cannot fault them for that at all–I am sure that their ears work fine.  This just is not the direction for me.

Samples:

• Radieuse
• Isola
• Mesosphere

 

 

 

24 May 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

It is increasingly difficult to discuss Alex Cobb's career without invoking the name "Andrew Chalk," as the similarities between the two artists are impossible to miss.  For one, they both run fine record labels and they both make elegant, understated, and quiet albums.  More importantly, they both seem to share a curious drive to endlessly revisit the same stylistic thread in hopes of someday distilling it to absolute perfection.  That being the case, Chantepleure will absolutely not surprise anyone who has picked up any of Cobb's previous albums: it offers more of the same (which is quite good), but it is now a bit more sophisticated and nuanced than it was last time around.

Students of Decay

The word "chantepleure" means to sing and cry at the same time, which makes a lot of sense in this case, as this is probably as close to an Alex Cobb "break-up album" as we are ever likely to get.  Cobb's turbulent state manifests itself quite compellingly and uniquely throughout Chantepleure, as his languorous, billowing drifts of treated guitar are almost always haunted by the subtle specter of dissonance, particularly on the opening album highlight "Prayer Ring."  The importance of those buried, slightly curdled notes cannot be overstated, as Cobb's warm, blissed-out tranquility otherwise rides the fine line separating "beautiful" from "dangerously pastoral."Cobb has found a way to artfully infuse his soft-focus dreaminess with just the merest hint of mystery and anguish, which is very tough balance to hit just right.

Cobb's execution is also superior.  On pieces like "Anselin," his shimmering clouds of edgeless, formless guitar heaven feel so natural that they seem like their own living, undulating entity than something coaxed out of an instrument by a human.Alex never lets his work become static or conspicuously composed; rather the fragile individual strands constantly swell, dissipate, wax, and wane to form a complex tapestry of tones, overtones, and shifting harmonies that remains in a deliciously constant state of flux.  That seamless, organic quality is what primarily keeps me coming back to his work.

If Chantepleure has any flaws, they are highly subjective ones.  As mentioned earlier, it is quite a serene album, which is definitely is not for everyone: the album’s side-long closing centerpiece, "Path of Appearance," for example, takes a very long time to betray even a hint of a darker undercurrent.  The other caveat is that Alex's artistry is so dependent on nuance and small-scale dynamic shifts that it can be very hard to get into without sufficient will and patience.  There is no overt power, melody, textural variation, simmering tension, rhythm, or dynamic arc to latch onto with any of these pieces, which would make them very boring in less skilled hands.  In Cobb's hands, however, such obvious "hooks" are absent because he is simply working on a different plane–Chantepleure is absolutely teeming with compelling small-scale harmonic activity, but it takes some focus and attention to detail to reap those rewards.  I always appreciate that in an album.  In its own small way, Chantepleure is a bulwark against an increasingly fast-paced and superficial world, reminding me that there is always hidden beauty in the world if I slow down enough to take notice.

Samples:

• Prayer Ring
• Anselin
• Disporting With A Shadow

 

 

23 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

Witness the latest rebirth of Campbell Kneale. It has happened before, and probably will again. This Wellington, NZ artist is on the forefront of the world noise scene, having cut his teeth for a decade in Birchville Cat Motel and more recently as Our Love Will Destroy the World.  Carnivorous Rainbows is electronic music at its most relentless; four tracks of pure, hot skree constantly rebuilding like a viper’s unpredictable strike. Some percussion rattles throughout, a few instruments are arguably perceptible, and a beautiful harmony of intensity creates a gorgeous tapestry of sounds.

You can preview the track "Hades Iron Horizon" on Ba Da Bing's Soundcloud here.

More information can be found here.

23 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

In typically fine form, The Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Pairaiso UFO have delivered another smoker to Important Records. Double LP pressed in an edition of 1000 copies.

Benzaiten is an In C-style homage to the the classic Osamu Kitajima record of the same name. The Acid Mothers Temple covers the title track and reprise using Kitajima's original composition as a departure point to explore the outer realms of AMT territory. Further instrumental explorations reveal textures of the original composition while launching out further into the cosmic domain. Numerous Acid Mothers original tracks are scattered in between. Benzaiten!

More information can be found here.

23 May 2015

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Albums and Singles

I had never heard Retribution Body before this album (which is a shame), but Aokigahara immediately got my attention for: 1.) being inspired by Japan's legendarily demon-haunted "suicide forest," and 2.) being released on the hyper-discriminating and oft-dormant Type label.  Also, it is a unique and near-great album.  Matthew Azevedo's singular drone performance/bass tone study has already drawn favorable comparisons to artists like Sunn O))) and Earth, but I actually see it much more in line with more formal electronic composers like Eliane Radigue, as it has a chiseled purity to it that feels very different than amplifier-worship (at times, anyway).  That said, Aokigahara is still quite heavy.

Type

Matthew Azevedo does not have a typical "noise artist" pedigree, as he has a long career as a mastering engineer, as well as an academic background in acoustics research.  Usually I am not terribly interested in a musician's formal credentials (if not actively dismissive), but they are quite relevant in this case, as being knowledgeable about frequencies, mastering, and architectural acoustics is essential for an album devoted almost entirely to exploring the potential of oscillating bass frequencies.  Appropriately, Aokigahara is a site-specific work, as this recording was taken from a 2013 performance at Fisher Recital Hall in Lowell, MA.  Azevedo performed these two pieces using guitars, piano, and host of strategically placed microphones.  Given that origin, I suspect the album is a mere shadow of the actual performance, especially since I do not possess a stereo set-up with killer sub-woofers.  It is still quite an imposing shadow though, particularly when it sticks to just throbbing and oscillating bass tones.

The strongest parts tend to be the simplest, such as opening moments of "Sea of Trees," where Azevedo’s deep bass amorphously throbs, pulses, and plunges in a glacial rhythm.  It calls to mind an ominous spreading blackness, like slow-motion footage of an octopus's ink cloud.  Gradually, it pulls further apart structurally while increasing in power, ultimately evolving into an unexpected minimalist/neo-classical piano recital that sounds like it is happening as the entire world is being torn apart by a black hole.  Or maybe it just sounds like a mad genius playing a final discordant piano concerto in his subterranean lair as his castle collapses above him.  Either way, it is quite a singular aesthetic.

My other favorite part is the opening of "Sea of Stars," in which Azevedo violently disrupts a machine-like hum with jarring crunches and rumbles.  The rest of the piece is a bit more subdued (and better) than "Sea of Trees," intermittently resolving into passages of awesomely deep, rhythmic throb.  Those are the moments that I like best: just simple, pulsing elemental power.  As far as the album is concerned, I wish Azevedo had just stuck to that style of visceral, throbbing minimalism, as the more musical and/or maximalist bits seem like a dilution of what Aokigahara excels at, which is artfully using low-frequency power and oscillation for hypnotic, gut-level waves of force.  That said, I was not at Fisher Recital Hall and I imagine there is probably a lot to be said for the awesome building-leveling, speaker-destroying entropy that Azevedo's crescendos must have unleashed.  Consequently, Aokigahara's minor flaws are more a function of media and context than any sort of compositional failing, as these pieces were not intended to be heard on a record player in someone’s living room or an iPod in a car.  Also, they are only flaws in the sense that they prevent Aokigahara (the album) from being a stone-cold drone masterpiece.  Instead, it is merely a very original and satisfying document of what was almost certainly a stone-cold performance masterpiece.

• Sea of Trees (excerpt one)
• Sea of Trees (excerpt two)
• Sea of Stars

 

 

18 May 2015

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Eric Quach has been producing works of experimental guitar and electronic drone for about a decade as thisquietarmy. His first full length album since last year's Rebirths, Anthems for Catharsis has as much weight and heaviness as its dramatic title would imply. A perfect balance of dissonance and beauty, the six songs elegantly drift from darkness to lightness, often within the confines of a single piece.

TQA Records/Consouling Sounds

Quach's work on this record draws from nearly every genre that could be associated with the word "rock."Multitracked guitars stretch out in every direction; mixed with (or processed to sound like) synthesizers, all the while drum programming keeps things moving in a strict, yet memorable rhythm.Some of the bleakest moments appear on the opening "Ruminations":deep sustained guitar noise and a distant sound that sounds like monstrous banging on a metal door ensure the mood is anything but light.

Darkness abounds on "Masquerade" as well, via big, cavernous drums and heavy guitar squalls.Compared to many other points on the record there is a more dominant, forceful sound, but it comes in a slower, dirge-laden package.Even with this force, there are long, beautiful stretches of melody that result in a song with more depth than most heavy songs such as this would have.

The other pieces, however, tend to journey from dark to light passages within their self-contained duration.The slow and majestic "From Darkness Redux" is a gauzy mass of sustained guitar melodies and almost synth-like passages, buoyed by a forceful underlying rhythm.The sound is a perfect mix of dour and uplifting:a precarious balance done exceptionally well.The complex rhythms and layered melodies of "Accommodator" result in a similar structure, but with heavier drama and transitioning from dungeon darkness into soaring, beautiful heights.

The album’s final composition, "Closure," is the most fully realized and complex work on an extremely strong album.Beginning from a vast space of droning feedback and plinking noises via guitar, Quach builds the piece up, adding in what sounds like electronics and bent guitar sounds, resulting in a richer and very powerful mix.Finally, he piles on glistening, expansive tone to a powerful climax, ultimately stripping things down to end on a beautifully understated note.

Anthems for Catharsis is yet another masterwork from Eric Quach's thisquietarmy project.His ability to balance extreme moods is unparalleled, and this album beautifully drifts from both sides.Gorgeous melodies, metronomic rhythms, and complex atmospheres abound, but perhaps its strongest asset is the sense of composition.Rather than just collections of sounds or noises, these feel like actual songs, with a distinct flow and development, resulting in a brilliant record.

samples:

• Ruminations
• Accommodator
• Closure