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Billed by member Lars Horntveth and Ninja Tune as a Fela Kuti/Frank Zappa/progressive rock hybrid, Jaga Jazzist's latest is even more expansive and inclusive than that description suggests. Unpredictable smatterings of funky bass, over-driven guitar solos, synth jams, Steve Reich-ian hypno-patterns, pleasing stylistic jumps, and a much appreciated sense of humor are all present on One-Armed Bandit and without a single instance of forced splicing or embarrassing technical posturing.
Jaga Jazzist draw from so many influences that accurately pinning down the sound on their latest album is an almost impossible task. References to Steve Reich make just as much sense as allusions to Janko Nilovic, Fela Kuti, or any one of the fusion-era jazz powerhouses, like Miles Davis or Mahavishnu Orchestra. So, calling it something like a rock-jazz hybrid is about as helpful as saying it has lots of notes, often played in rapid succession. What Jaga Jazzist have done so well on this record is blend all of their influences to the point of complete synthesis: they not only play killer jazz and classical licks, they own them and blend them as if it were the most natural thing in the world. This is easily demonstrable: just listen to the dark and brooding rock of "220 V/Spektral" and witness how effortlessly it segues into the looping organs, towering horns, and skittering drum 'n' bass rhythms of "Toccata." At first blush these tunes don't seem reconcilable, but Jaga draws them together flawlessly, connecting the dots between their own electronic past, library music, jazz, and progressive rock, sometimes on the same song.
But One-Armed Bandit isn't a great record thanks to its showy virtuosity and seamless blending alone. Each of the album's nine songs features a strong melodic or rhythmic center and a whole smörgåsbord of unusual diversions and thematic shifts that entertain directly and viscerally. In other words, One-Armed Bandit isn't a difficult or complex-for-complexity's-sake record. There are as many tight and memorable hooks as there are impressive solos or complex passages. Much of its success in this regards stems from the band's ability to laugh at themselves. The album's artwork, which is centered on casino imagery, finds its analog on the album's first song, which quickly demonstrates that this isn't going to be simply a wank-fest for technique-obsessed musicians. While keeping things tight and forward moving, Jaga Jazzist toss together sax solos and horn sections, thick-as-concrete bass lines with enough funk to liberate most asses, guitar leads that would make almost anyone contort their face in Van Halen-like glory, and a percussion performance with energy enough to make Buddy Rich proud. In other words, the song kicks ass in the first two minutes, generating enough energy to power the Starship Enterprise for the duration of The Next Generation. They then throw in flutes, xylophones, any number of keyboards, and other miscellaneous accompaniment before breaking out a weirdo surprise in the middle: an orchestra of slot machines erupting in unison, like a symphony of gamblers diving into a sea of arpeggios and victoriously flashing lights. It's a dizzying moment, especially since the band manages to bounce the rhythm around like a skipping record, and it illustrates very well the spirit of the rest of the record.
Without even a hint of choppiness or awkwardness, Jaga Jazzist fill One-Armed Bandit up with all manner of surprises and killer tunes, and they completely out-do themselves on each and every song, showing off their songwriting chops and technical ability at once. I have probably listened to this record more than any other this year and I'm finding that it continues to grow on me nearly six months after its release.
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The long-awaited (and almost instantly sold-out) vinyl debut from the less prolific half of Natural Snow Buildings continues Solange Gularte’s fine tradition of dreamlike, disquieting, and temporally dislocated ethno-ambience. While perhaps not as consistently graceful and brilliant as her solo contributions to 2008’s epic The Snowbringer Cult, Modlitewnik is nevertheless scattered with some of her most singular and otherworldly music yet.
Modlitewnik ("prayer book" in Polish) opens in supremely haunting fashion, as "Night Dew Call" fades in with sad, vaporous, and almost sacred-sounding wordless vocals amidst a haze of reverb and spectral flutes or pipes. Unexpectedly, however, it lasts less than two minutes before transitioning into the comparatively cheerier, but considerably less impressive "Ver Sacrum," which approximates pastoral Irish folk filtered through a blurred, hallucinatory fog.Fortunately, the bulk of the album is very much in the vein of the initial eerie ambiance, though Gularte breaks up the sequencing a bit with occasional divergences like the relatively straightforward acoustic guitars of "Fire Flies."
Solange’s current aesthetic can be best summarized as "early traditional music warped into something very lysergic and pagan-sounding."What makes her work so fascinating is both the enormous breadth of her inspiration and her unique skill at evoking occult, earthy, and timeless atmospheres.Isengrind’s music simply does not sound like it is being made in the present time, nor does it sound like Gularte has any interest at all in the culture that the modern world is currently producing (aside from perhaps noise/drone music).Instead, this album is a bubbling cauldron of Norse and Babylonian mythology, macabre Romanian lore, inscrutable runes, timeless spirituality, enigmatic art, and folk music culled from India, the British Isles, and the Far East.In fact, the weakest song on the album (the '60s acid-folk-tinged "I Know Where I Am Going") is the only one that overtly nods to relatively contemporary times at all.
There are a few other songs that I don’t particularly care for, but most of the album is extremely good and sometimes stunning. Gularte has a distinct knack for making tambourines, pipes, and sitars sound sinister and ritualistic.She’s also quite adept at some less tangible things, like making sounds echo and bleed together to the perfect degree or allowing songs to unfold at a natural, unhurried pace.Much of the time, Modlitewnik sounds like a very inspired album by a very odd woman with a houseful of exotic instruments and esoteric books.At its best, however, it sounds far more like I just blundered into a forbidden grotto and that a circle of ecstatically-tranced she-druids is now closing in on me, drawing their curved knives for a blood sacrifice.
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Painting a picturesque landscape using nothing but melody and ingenuity has long been at the epicenter of avant pursuits. Lustrous locks of tonal notes floating in the breeze as each counterpart unfurls, becoming sinewy strings of texture set against a golden background. It is among such a romantic setting that the works of Fabio Orsi glimmer, catching the sun’s rays and beaming it back to the world as beautifully constructed song paintings. On his latest, Random Shades of Day, Orsi continues to emerge as a master of transforming music into mood through four pieces of richly layered drone set against a dreamy landscape.
Random Shades of Day is no small feat. Surrounded by two discs of out of print and unreleased material, it rewards those patient enough to absorb the older works of Orsi. The deep catalog of Orsi releases is barely touched on Random Shades of Day but the older (but just as touching) music proves as the perfect accompaniment to the new. Following Orsi’s subtle progression, Random Shades of Day allows the unfamiliar plenty of chances to understand Orsi’s point of view.
However, Random Shades of Day is dominated by the four new recordings of the same name that adroitly mimic the atmosphere at various stages of a typical day. Each part of "Random Shades of Day" builds upon its predecessor. Part I is a slow grind as the sun peaks over the horizon, as shifts in tone methodically seesaw through bursts of electronic rays. The consonance bleeds into Part II as the sun reaches its apex. The melody turns heavy as the sun parades across the sky, drenching everything in ultraviolet light and heavy humidity. The same droning keys and meditative effects push and pull throughout the first half Random Shades of Day, illuminating Orsi’s true-to-title vision as it metastasizes into art. As the sun begins to set near the end of Part II, the minor keys take over and the rhythm speeds up. The track becomes translucent; the layers are being peeled back as the song blossoms into the expanses of dusk. The effects and electronics swirl together like the oranges, yellows, and reds of the evening sky.
The back half begins coldly as the chill of the moon replaces the warmth of the sun as the album’s warmer tones are devoured by windy chords and ominous tones. Random Shades of Day turns bleak as midnight approaches, calling to the supernatural in its stealthy approach. Part III slows to a crawling pace, capturing the slumbering state. The real becomes ethereal and the day’s images are corrupted into nightmarish imagery. It isn’t until Part IV that the spell is broken and a peaceful rest settles on Orsi.
Random Shades of Day is another strong piece in the voluminous canon of Fabio Orsi. Yet paired with older work, it only grows in power and prestige. Orsi has come a long way and Random Shades of Day puts his meteoric trajectory on full (and magnificent) display.
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Black Sun Productions
While the album’s tracks are titled, recorded and programmed on CD aseight different pieces Visions Ov Anarcadia is best enjoyed in onesitting as a single flowing voyage. Although it’s not really until suchand such minutes in on “Somethings Valley” (also known as track three)that the album title really begins to make sense.
The song’s combination of controlled lushness, lengthy processed pipemelody and the creation of an expansive area brings to mind vividmental pictures of open spaces. This bare melody comes in waves,undulating almost like its being blown across hills that aren’t there.It’s the sensation of movement here from the warm techno core that gives the impression of travelling throughAnarcadia without moving. But with this is an icy sliver of sadness inthe realization that Anarcadia doesn’t really exist, at least on thisphysical plane.
From there the album explores quietly clattering Coil prayer menacewith “Mount Coum,” and wanders fog-bound along the distantly murkyshorelines of “Cape Cock,” whose highlight is a sinister baroque gothictheme which rises only once from the song’s depths like Kubrick’smonolith. A heartbeat and “Ov Arc”s wavering moan of breath-like soundleads slowly into the tribalistic and surprisingly powerful technofinale of “Mount Smegma,” which drives as much for the head as thefloor. This album’s combination of innocence, darkness, sadness andexploration is further proof of the Black Sun stamp as a mark ofquality in an unreliable but predictable musical climate.
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Planet Mu
Merciless and astounding, Degenerate is a shock to theproverbial system, a savage hate crime against the softened eardrums ofwimpy dance rock hipsters and trendy techno fashionistas. The duobehind Vex'd conjure up an unflinching and bleak industrial vision ofelectronic music, the likes of which havent been seen since Scorn's Greetings from Birmingham.The solitary opening bleeps of "Pop Pop V.I.P." resurrect the elatedtones of Sweet Exorcist's pathbreaking classic "Testone" beforeerupting into a grisly cacophony of neck-snapping snares andstomach-churning rumbles. "Thunder" slashes the tempo right in half,leaving only an eviscerated aural carcass. The twisted uptempo rhythmsreturn on "Angels," a sub-bass monster specked with a particularlyghastly film sample. This dancefloor-accessible style of low-endworship dominates the album, from the dubby inflections of "Venus" and"Fire" to the unstoppable breakbeat monoliths of "Gunman" and "LionV.I.P." A notable deviation from this effective formula comes on "Cold"with its distant strings and gurgling, groaning synthy squelches,presenting an atmospheric, more pensive and, atypically, beatlessversion of the now undeniable Vex'd sound. As if an entire album ofsuch power weren't enough, Planet Mu thankfully includes a second discof bonus tracks culled largely from previously released 12" records.The original version of "Lion," a highlight among this shorter set,digs a distorted bleepy melody out of the crates that might tantalizeformer ravers longing for the sounds of forgotten warehouse parties.
To approach Degenerate as the product or even arelative of the U.K. dubstep/sublow/grime scenes would do it an immenseinjustice, as Vex'd truly have compiled a peerless document that speaksto our grim, chaotic, blood-drenched world without hardly saying aword.
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The story goes like this: David Lynch wanted to use This Mortal Coil's haunting version of Tim Buckley's "Song to a Siren" for a pivotal scene in his classic film "Blue Velvet." Something about Elizabeth Frasier's ethereal, wavering voice and the echoing acoustic guitar was perfect for a particular scene in the film. For the rights to use the song, 4AD wanted a figure that was half the budget of the film he was making. Deeply disappointed that he could not afford the song, he asked the film's composer, Angelo Badalamenti, to write and produce a track that had a similar "feel". Badalamenti found a singer with the voice of an angel, Julee Cruise, an unknown who had been working off-off-Broadway, and with lyrics penned by Lynch, they composed the song "Mysteries of Love".
Although not quite the equal of "Song to a Siren", they saw a lot of potential, and eventually Lynch and Badalamenti teamed up to write and produce an album for Julee Cruise. Lynch wrote the lyrics and guided the sound, and Badalamenti filled out the sound with his excellent ear for composition. The classic album "Falling Into the Night" is a pop treasure, combining 1950s rockabilly guitar with darkly atmospheric synthesized strings and Cruise's angelic, overdubbed vocals. The Lynch/Balamenti/Cruise collaboration went on for several years, and the songs ended up in Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and Wim Wenders "Until the End of the World". There was a follow up album a couple of years later, 'Voice of Love'. It wasn't nearly as good, but it still captured the sound that had originally inspired Lynch/Badalementi. They even built a huge rock-opera spectacle around Julee Cruise, 1989's "Industrial Symphony No. 1".
Not satisfied to wait for Lynch and Badalamenti to write her another album, Julee has chosen a different group of collaborators to work with for her new album 'The Art of Being a Girl.' If anyone had any questions about how much input Julee had into her music all these years, this album should clear everything up. She had no input at all. Lynch/Badalamenti were using Julee as an instrument, a breathy "little-girl-lost" voice to accompany their atmospheric tracks. This is the first album where Julee has co-written songs, and it is an incredibly average affair. Her collaborators (Mocean Worker, Khan and some guy named J.J. McGeehan), have used a lot of trite studio tricks in an attempt to distract the listener from the fact that the songs are boring. Julee makes the error of trying to recreate herself as some kind of world-wise feminist diva. It feels really forced, and the album sounds like every other downtempo "sexy" electronic pop album with faceless female vocals.
Several of the tracks attempt to mimic Julee's guest star turn on Khan's awesome track "Say Goodbye" from last year's 'No Comprendo'; none of them live up to these aspirations. The compositions are tired and riddled with cliché. The laughable, non-sexy spoken word segments in many of the songs don't help at all. As a final insult, there is a hidden track, a new version of one of Julee's best songs from the Lynch/Badalamenti years, "Falling" (recognizable to many as the opening theme of Twin Peaks). This tepid version adds nothing to the original song, and it just serves as a reminder of how great the song sounded when it was in the hands of more talented collaborators. Julee Cruise's talent is serviceable in the proper context, when the songwriting and production is top-notch. However, this underachieving album pales in comparison to her previous work as a bit player in the grand Lynchian musical drama.
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The first release in the new Raster-Post series from Raster Noton, this CD is unsurprisingly eye-catching, at least in its limited-to-1000-pieces form. (It comes in a matte-black card case held closed with a black elastic cord, a distinctive red dot, and subtle black and stark white type.) On the one hand, it is a truly beautiful recording, both musically and, importantly for this sort of abstract, minimal electronica, in its production, which is occasionally stunning. On the other hand, it's a perfect example of genre music, with virtually nothing original about it. Instead, it imitates the classics of post-Oval glitch music to the most slavish extent: there are what could only generously be called "echoes" of Oval, Microstoria, Fennesz, Vladislav Delay, and Pole, to name the most obvious. More often than not the originals seem to have been sampled.
It's all brilliantly done and very, very listenable, but ultimately derivative. My initial reaction was that that's shame when the artist's ability with sound is so apparent as it is here. But why is it called 'Temporary Music?' Is it meant to be an ephemeral tribute record? Is it a conceptual take on the current strain in experimental computer music that samples or modifies "conventional" recordings, made by the likes of Stephan Mathieu, Ekkehard Ehlers, and Akira Rabelais—just taking next step and having micro-music reprocess itself? No idea, but if you want orginality above all else, look elsewhere. If you're happy listening to this sort of music and want to welcome a new name who does exactly the same thing as everyone else (albeit with a possible explanation for why he's doing it) look no further.
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With his well-received debut album "Approximate Love Boat", Danny Zelonky emerged as Low Res with experimental electronic music in a style all his own. Low Res takes samples of a broad range of instruments and creates engrossing yet completely disparate music with them. It's clear that Zelonky, like a recent wave of electronic artists, believes that the best music is created through this approach, not through cheaply synthesized recreations that never sound genuine. But it's the way he accomplishes this goal on his second LP "Blue Ramen" that is truly ingenious. Even with real instruments at his disposal - including real drums and percussion - nearly every beat and sound is programmed on these songs. The instruments were not recorded the way they are played and then assembled in a collage with beats. Every note is placed there in a systematic piece-by-piece approach. So what escapes from the speakers sounds at once improvised and freeform, like a group of musicians playing together, when in fact every part of it is structured meticulously by Low Res to help end the "cheap karaoke" sound of synths and samplers. The results are interesting, but a bit of a grab-bag. Different rhythms and tastes abound - from the Latin-tinged album opener 'Shaftasia' to the almost jazz shuffle of 'Inverse Shift' - which gives the release a schizophrenic feel. Low Res just seems to create whatever music he wants, with no regard for a common theme or style. "Ramen" also features the debut of a rather strange electronic wind instrument, one Zelonky calls the "ersax", and abundant strains of Low Res' favorite instrument: the organ. It makes your toe tap in areas, makes your hips shake in others, and makes your brain hurt in still others, but never all at once. The songs are a rather disjointed listen, which is unfortunate considering the skill and creativity involved. It's rumored that Low Res intends to assemble a live band to tour behind "Blue Ramen", and that would be a treat. For the record, though, it would work so much better with a common theme or genre to give it backbone. Still a fine effort from a talented musician.
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Both experimental electronic producers and tech-house DJs alike show a reverence for the highly-imitated Cologne sound. The same respect applies to the city's own Kompakt label, which continues to put out slabs and discs of dubby analogue deepness. For the fourth installment of the Total series, some of the previously-released tracks from the past year are compiled alongside cuts from upcoming singles. Though I enjoy the tech-house sound quite a bit, most of the material on here is forgettable, not to say that those songs are necessarily bad. From a DJ's perspective, there are too many "transition" tracks that can help keep a set moving along, but really fail to give it any luster or polish. The exceptions, however, are the type of tracks that make labels famous. Jürgen Paape offers "Mit Dir," an unusually Germanic-flavored slice of neo-disco that left me equally puzzled and entertained. Similar to Vladislav Delay's work under the Luomo moniker, M. Mayer's "Falling Hands" features near-whispered vocals ("I'm falling in love") over a deep bassline, delay-treated kicks, and airy strings. Autobianchi's "All Around (Everybody's Kissing)" is driving vocal house worthy of play alongside recent stormers like "Nightclubbing At Home" from MRI. The sex appeal that emanates from this song recalls ecstasy-fueled orgiastic foreplay in a club or at a rave, the kind that only ever happens in late-night movies and the fantasies of confirmed perverts like myself. Though there are some genuine disasters here (namely the dismal electroclash craze cash-in cover song from Superpitcher), 'Total 4' holds its own as a decent, though often boring, collection of one region's current contributions to the ever-growing international tech-house scene. These pretzels are making me thirsty.
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- Jurgen Paape - Mit Dir
- M. Mayer - Falling Hands
- Autobianchi - All Around
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"Part 1" is driven by a mid-up tempo, choppy, hip-hop style beat with dance underlings. The chord progressions are arpeggiated at first by a distant electric guitar with the bass holding down the fort, which then blends seamlessly with sampled vibraphone, synth, treated sounds and backwards masking, making for some great and subtle listening. As mentioned, "Part 2" has a "more of same, only different" approach with a surprisingly different outlook as most of the elements of "Part 1" are arranged with slight variance. The absence of a definitive back beat in the groove helps to highlight the tune's orchestration and focuses more on the clever leading of the chords and their qualities in relation to each other. 'I'm on Fire' is worth searching out.
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- Bill Ryubin
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The prospect of new material from Mick Harris's project mightn't get hearts racing as it would have done a few years ago, but this EP of four mixes from 'Plan-B,' and two exclusive tracks show a real return to form. Whenever I hear a new Scorn release, I always hope he'll have added some new twist or surprise, and for once he's showing some interest in moving away from his established style.Hymen
The dub influences have been slowly edged out since his move to Hymen Records, leaving just the the slow-motion, lumbering hip-hop beats and abstract bass rumbles. Thankfully though, he hasn't lost his knack for getting your head pounding, and as the first few crunchy beats of "Hedrake" lurched into existence, I stopped caring whether he has re-invented himself; okay, it's nothing he hasn't done a thousand times before, but after years of honing his approach, he's getting it down to a fine art. His ultra-minimal, stripped-down sound gets a little drab on two of the 'beat mix' remixes, being little more than mildly engaging drum tracks and looped fragments. It's the remaining three tracks on 'Governor,' though, which elevate it above his recent work. The more abstract, masterful "Collections" focuses more on the eerie texture and unsettling ambience. The added dimension makes a world of difference, and more of this standard would see him re-established as the master of this genre.
The closing two remixes are entirely un-Scorn-like, and are a real breath of fresh air, with a marked move away from the pounding beats towards a fresh, less immediate exploraion of eerie abstractions. The first is a brief, looped and stretched piano loop, while the second is a superb, energetic Somatic Responses mix of "The Snow Hill." Each confirm that future Scorn releases are something to get excited about again.
 
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