29 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This second volume of Analog Africa's excellent Orchestre Poly-Rythmo career retrospective is yet another treasure trove of lost Afro-funk gems.  While a bit slicker than its predecessor, the heavy voodoo grooves remain and should serve to further cement the Orchestre’s new-found international reputation as one of Africa’s most exciting and innovative bands.

 

Analog Africa

Much like the Vodoun Effect before it, Echos Hypnotiques focuses largely on material from the group’s ‘70s prime.  However, the recordings collected here are culled from the Orchestre’s more professionally recorded releases for Albarika Store.  As such, it is marginally more “mainstream” in that it is smoother and less quirky than the secret lo-fi recordings from the first volume.  Not by much though—all of the elements that made the Vodoun Effect so infectious are here as well (yet I definitely miss some of the more unhinged organ parts).

There are a couple of things that the Orchestre truly excel at and the main one is turning out some taut, rhythmically complex, and killer grooves.  This is best executed by the infectiously propulsive cowbell beat of “Agnan Dekpe,” which also features some nicely arranged brass and understated organ riffing.  The second element that sets OPR apart from their peers is their seamless and ravenous assimilation of disparate and wide-ranging influences.  For example, “Malin Kpon O” combines clean highlife guitars, a straight funk rhythm section, and psych-tinged organ. Incidently, that song is the one that initially convinced Analog Africa's Samy Ben Redjeb to track down the rest of the band's oeuvre.  “Minkou E So Non Moin," on the other hand, seems to borrow liberally from both disco and reggae.  A Latin influence is also fairly pervasive at times (such as on “Zizi”), but the group’s primary reference point is almost always the traditional ritual percussion of their native Benin.

Or course, the Orchestre definitely have some conspicuous weaknesses too.  The main one is that a lot of their material more closely resembles an extended vamp than a tightly structured song.  This is a mixed blessing, as when they lock into an incredibly funky rhythm like that of “Houne Djein Nada,” I’m more than happy to let it continue uninterrupted.  Unfortunately, when the groove is not so compelling, songs can seem very flabby and tedious.  “Mede Ma Gnin Messe” is probably the worst offender, as it is relentlessly cheery and repetitive and drags on for an excruciating nine minutes.  There also seems to be an inability to cut loose extraneous instrumentation at times, which results in a substantial amount of clutter, meandering solos, and distracting noodling.

That said, such shortcomings merely mean that Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is a “singles band.”  There are a lot of great songs here, they just aren’t frequent enough to justify regularly playing the entire album straight through.  At their best, the Orchestre’s rhythm section is as funky, vibrant, and exhilarating as nearly anybody.  It's good to see them finally get their due.

Samples:

• Malin Kpon O
• Agnon Dekpe
• Houe Djein Nada

 

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29 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This consists of five relatively lengthy works culled from an eclectic array of recordings by this renowned Aussie experimental guitarist. The unifying theme seems to be that all are rare or out-of-print, which should make completists quite happy (especially ones without record players). Those new to Ambarchi should probably go elsewhere first, but casual fans will likely find many pleasantly diverting (though not revelatory) moments here to tide them over until Oren's next album emerges.

Touch

The opening piece, "Intimidator," is from a 2006 collaboration with Anthony Pateras, who contributes prepared piano.It originally appeared as a vinyl-only bonus track on In The Pendulum’s Embrace and it certainly has a very "bonus track" feel to it.While not bad by any means, it is not particularly attention-grabbing either.The entire track is essentially just Ambarchi’s guitar quietly feeding back with occasional disruptive plinking and clanging metallic stabs from Pateras’s piano.Of course, the feedback subtly oscillates and Oren unleashes some of his trademark sub bass droning, but it is too understated to make much of an impression.

"Iron Waves" is a previously unreleased "remix" of a song by Paul Duncan.It’s a bit more interesting than "intimidator," as Ambarchi wrests some submerged-sounding bell-tones from his ax, which, coupled with the escalating feedback dissonance and an ominous low drone, evokes quite an atmosphere of menace.It ultimately becomes a pretty odd and confounding work though, as it is basically a decent, by-the-numbers Ambarchi soundscape that is intermittently (and somewhat purposelessly) muddied by guitar and vocal interludes from the original.Duncan is generally a likeable vocalist, but his singing here is too dour and overwrought for my taste. The two clumsily intertwined aesthetics yield less than the sum of their parts; I'm not quite sure why this exists.

The final three songs are sans collaborators and seemingly the better for it."Moving Violations" (from Touch’s 25th anniversary compilation) is a dense, buzzing, and crackling foray into deep, quivering bass drone that gradually coheres into a dissonant repeating riff of sorts."The Strouhal Number" is an early live recording (from 2000), yet strangely, it is the most immediately gratifying, melodic, and composed-sounding piece on the album.Naturally, Oren’s omnipresent subterranean drone and quiet crackle are on display, but he pleasingly augments that groundwork with a floating shimmer of bell-like tones (as well as some Pole-esque clicks and pops).It is quite a dream-like and beautiful ambient piece, and conspicuously divergent in tone from everything that surrounds it.

The closing track ("A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks") is a much more recent live recording (from 2007) and, unsurprisingly, sounds entirely different than its predecessor.As always, the piece’s backbone is a low drone, but it is buried beneath a thick, vibrant, squirming morass of garbled bells, buzzes, and bleeps.It is the album’s longest track (at 20 minutes), and gradually increases in density until it becomes a chittering, grinding industrial roar.Around the halfway point, most of the cacophony drops out, leaving only sustained, clashing feedback tones and an erratically shifting pulse that gradually winnows down to a quiet coda of hissing metallic cymbals, murky swells, and somber bell-tones.

Intermission, aside from "The Strouhal Number," features very little in the way of melody and depends almost entirely on density and texture (and occasionally raw power).This (along with a similar aversion to rhythm) can make Ambarchi much more difficult to embrace than other experimental guitarist luminaries (such as Fennesz or Jim O’Rourke), as his pieces often lack conspicuous differentiating traits. Nevertheless, his understated mastery is amply evident to those that listen close enough to find beauty in oscillation.

Samples:

• Iron Waves
• Moving Violation
• The Strouhal Number

 

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28 November 2009

John Kealy

Albums and Singles

This is nothing short of perfect mood music for breaching the walls of reality. This is music for that dark hallway you have to walk down from time to time, every step an uncomfortable one. Feelings of unease and vague fear permeate both sides of this cassette. Sounds fall, trip up and collapse in on each other. Nothing is what it seems to be; everything changes in the darkness into the unfamiliar and alien.

 

Gnarled Forest

This is the first of three planned collaborations between WM. Rage, Stan Reed and Matthew Waldron (this cassette will be followed at some point by an LP and a CD of all new material). Overall, the raw materials for these pieces sound like they have come from the boys in Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, but the construction of the music has Waldron’s signature all over it. Skeletal Imposition has more in common with older irr. app. (ext.) releases like Perekluchenie than with Waldron’s more recent albums, however.

“Skeletal Imposition Pt 1” is a fuzzy, grainy journey through the darker corners of sonic spectrum. Layers of dust clog up electronic noise, waves of sinister rhythms and blankets of unsettling drones give way to strange screams and moans, none of which sound like any living creature but perhaps something else that couls only be found in a story by H.P. Lovecraft or William Hope Hodgson. On the second part of “Skeletal Imposition,” a beast has arrived and guttural, animal vocals howl, trying to communicate across an unfathomable void. The sense of dread that I feel is very, very strong.

This is a terrifying record and a great introduction to this series of collaborations. This sort of dark mood music gets under my skin and leaves a powerful impression. It is not dark ambience; this is as far from that clichéd and dull genre as possible. I have only played this in daylight so far because I do not trust that I would be safe with it once the sun sets.

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Amberhaze is the solo project of an Italian expatriate currently living in Singapore, which seems to be an unexpectedly fertile ground these days for warm electronic music such as this.  However, Giulliano Gullotti also exhibits quite a healthy (and well-justified) passion for early ‘90s English shoegaze (which obviously Singapore is not as known for). Despite that substantial temporal and geographic disadvantage, this debut album combines those two loves with a sometimes stunning degree of success.

 

KittyWu

This album opens in a very odd and counterintuitive way, with a pleasant (but very brief) piano piece that segues into seemingly yet another sparse, melancholy piano piece.  That second song, “Blossoms,” slowly begins to build in intensity, however, as a majestic synthesizer melody gradually fades in alongside some bombastic, slow-motion drums.  Not much else ends up happening though and I found my interest rapidly waning.  Thankfully, Gullotti starts to show some promise with the third track (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped”), which tweaks the formula of the previous track with increased density and exuberantly stumbling, off-kilter drums.  It is remarkable how much a difference great drumming can make, especially with sad, slow music like this, which can easily be plodding and dull.  Giulliano, as it turns out, is an excellent percussionist.  Or at least very good at programming a drum machine.

The near-prefect fifth song (“A Certain Affinity”) was the one that finally grabbed me.  Gullotti combines a catchy and propulsive synth pop foundation with an extremely cool, subtly dissonant, and oddly-timed guitar riff, then tops it all off with an endearingly burbling keyboard motif.  As it steadily increases in intensity, the guitars grow noisier and the drum machine begins to stutter more and more before it all downshifts into an achingly beautiful bridge.  It is difficult to think of a more bittersweetly memorable instrumental pop song, as literally everything is arranged and presented for more maximum impact and emotional power.

Thankfully, that mid-album infusion of momentum hardly dissipates at all for its remainder.  While “Affinity” is definitely the best song on the album, nearly everything that follows it is pretty excellent and instantly gratifying.  “1994,” which follows immediately afterwards, is similar in epic feel to “Blossoms,” but with a much better groove and infinitely more explosive drumming.  “Crush” stands out as yet another killer song, closely resembling a collision between the best elements of Labradford and Slowdive.  The wheezing synthesizer, shuffling rhythm section, and lazily gorgeous guitars of “There is a Way” make for yet another clear highlight (though the tortured Swervedriver/MBV-inspired guitar wailing in the middle certainly doesn’t hurt either).

While it is extremely obvious who Amberhaze’s primary influences are, Giulliano definitely combines them in a way that is uniquely his own.  I’d love to know what this guy was doing before this, as Gullotti displays immense, fully-formed talent for writing catchy songs and great melodies, as well as great deal of instrumental and orchestration prowess.  Then We Saw the Stars Again certainly has some serious faults, but they are largely the result of sequencing faux pas and lax self-editing rather than any lack of skill or vision.  At his best, Giulliano Gullotti has no trouble standing with all the great bands that inspired him.

Samples:

• A Certain Affinity
• Crush
• There is a Way

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This reissue of the trio’s only album together fills in a gap in my Krautrock collection but unfortunately does not live up to the quality I expect from any of the artists involved. Heavily inspired by African rhythms, this 1983 album has dated badly and sounds and upsettingly reminds me of one of my most hated albums of all time (Paul Simon’s Graceland, a more harrowing record I have never encountered). However, there are still moments of brilliance shining through but overall this is an album that might have been better left in the vaults.

 

Bureau-B

Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank already had two collaborative albums under their belts by the time they got around to Zero Set. Adding Guru Guru’s Mani Neumeier to their party should have been a stroke of genius; if anyone’s drumming should fit with Moebius and Plank’s electronic sounds it would be him. Yet listening to Zero Set it never feels like the trio are actually communicating with each other. The end result for the music was obviously to organically unite the electronics with Neumeier’s human beats but much of the album feels cold and a little contrived. Granted it all sounds perfectly captured and mixed and listening from a more objective standpoint (and assuming one has no idea who the people are behind the music) it is impossible to say that this album was made by artists who did not know what they were doing.

The problem I feel is that of timing. This kind of music reminds me of my childhood (not that I was listening to the likes of Cluster when young) in that it sounds like something from the past that I have completely forgotten about and never really cherished. This is not a nostalgia but a feeling that the world has moved on so much that an album like Zero Set seems very much out of place in 2009. Nevertheless there are merits to the album, the seeds for techno (both straightlaced and the more out there variants practised by the likes of Autechre) are planted in pieces like “All Repro” which sounds as much like background music for an old Nintendo game as it does a studio experiment by some of Germany’s top musicians. The off-kilter rhythms and melodies of “Load” also echo on in the works of artists such as Squarepusher but I feel this is convergent evolution on the part of modern artists rather than any kind of direct influence.

Comparing Zero Set to Kraftwerk’s Computer World (which pre-dates this album by a couple of years) and I cannot help but feel that Moebius, Plank and Neumeier had created something out of date before it even hit the shelves. The baton had already been passed from Germany to the rest of the world in terms of innovative and paradigm-shifting rock and pop music; post-punk taking rock to new places and electronic music expanding in all fields to catch up with rapidly developing technology. Overall, this is an oddity that is good to have and hear after being out of print for so long but is by no means essential listening.

samples:

• Load
• All Repro
• Recall

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Sometimes I have to wonder how much life is left in rock and roll. How long before every possible note is exhausted? Then I think, who cares as long as albums like this exist. It is rough as sandpaper and about as original as any other retro-styled artist but this album rocks very hard. This is not surprising considering it is the work of Michael Polizze of Birds of Maya but this solo album has clicked with me even more than his main group already has; its guitar-heavy mix and hypnotising riffs tap into a primeval feeling of rock and roll abandon and it feels like a living fossil from a time when Blue Cheer and The Stooges were punk kids shaking things up.

 

Archive

“Almost Washed My Hair” erupts from the stereo like some bastard child from a universe where Iggy Pop fronted The Velvet Underground and the only song in their repertoire was “Sister Ray” but they could never remember how to play it. This ear-splitting and cacophonous rock sounds as raw and powerful as anything else in my record collection. The deafening guitars dominate everything; only ghosts of vocals and a hammering beat are perceptible under the overloaded amplifiers. However, this is nothing like the amplifier worship of Sunn O))) or other volume friendly bands. Purling Hiss instead goes for that swaggering, sexual rock rhythm that has been strangely absent in a lot of new music (or at least not as swaggering and sexy as it used to be).

Purling Hiss turn things up even more (beyond what would be considered polite for sure) on “Purple Hiss.” At a quarter of an hour, it is a sweaty and blistering journey through the impossibly loud. The guitar solos are electric and contain everything that a guitar solo should: false starts, fits, duff notes, wah and enough amplification to make us all feel a little sick. The final tune, “Montage Mountain,” recycles the recordings that make up the rest of the album. Polizze does not make anything spectacularly new out of the recordings but it is another chance to bask in the glow from his six strings which are burning white hot at this point.

Maybe it is the adrenaline talking but this album is a serious contender for my rock album of the decade. Like any latecomer to a party, Purling Hiss do not give a toss about you or your friends but they are hear to drink your booze and have a good time. Instead of asking where they have been for the last while, make the most of it and party with them until you get blind drunk, throw up and ruin the carpet. It will be worth it, trust me.

samples:

• Almost Washed My Hair
• Purple Hiss
• D.U.I.

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Dean McPhee’s debut EP takes a divergent path from the current prevailing solo guitar trends, venturing into neither Fahey/Basho-inspired steel guitar virtuosity nor pedal-stomping soundscapes.  Instead, Brown Bear quietly captures the sound of a man simply playing a guitar extremely well, with little ostentation or outside artifice.

 

Hood Faire

Brown Bear consists of three songs of varying lengths, all of which were at least partially improvised and recorded in just one take.  I am not much of a process fetishist, so that did not strike me as especially impressive in and of itself.  However, McPhee’s nail-it-in-one-take artistic purity is probably responsible for much of the EP’s endearingly loose and spontaneous feel, so I appreciated it nonetheless.

The brief and mournful “Sky Burial” opens the record with gentle minor arpeggios, insistent bass notes, and a clear, clean melody, which McPhee deftly twists and dances around.  The following piece takes a more minimal and static approach, but McPhee employs his arsenal of old analog effects for some unusual colors and textures.  While not as lean and focused as its predecessor, it is instead packed full of captivatingly baroque passages and inventive harmonies.  The piece has a bit a hallucinatory feel as well, as it quavers and glistens with heavy chorusing and expertly utilizes delay to give the central melody a ghostly after-image.    

The entire second side of the record is taken up by the lengthy title track, which I initially found to be deceptively underwhelming.  In fact, its first half could easily be mistaken for a variation of “Sky Burial” with the addition of a chorus pedal.  Though certainly enjoyable, it caused me to wonder if McPhee had exhausted his ideas after just two songs.  Thankfully, however, my pessimism was premature and ill-founded, as “Brown Bear” soon transforms into an extremely cool and completely unexpected foray into elegantly warped psychedelia.  The bass line from the opening motif remains in a slowed-down form, which keeps things coherent, but a hazily repeating, thickly harmonized loop suddenly begins to lag, squirm, and lurk ominously beneath its melody.  Eventually, all of the more straightforward elements of the piece fall away entirely and leave only a sublimely spacey ambient coda.  It's quite a neat trick and Dean manages it quite seamlessly, resulting in the record's clear highlight.

Solo guitar albums are not generally my favorite thing due to their inherent limitations, but I enjoy Brown Bear quite a bit.  This is a very promising and assured first release, as McPhee displays a rare combination of technical skill, simplicity, and subtle unpredictability.  A full-length is due next spring.

Samples:

• Sky Burial
• Stony Ground
• Brown Bear

 

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950 is an astonishing document of 75 sepia photograph reproductions with a disc of 25 songs and sermons. As usual, the Dust to Digital label rises above concepts of social division and genre by including music made by both African-Americans and European-Americans. There's a primal appeal both to these sounds and to the haunting, almost other-worldly photographs.  

 

Dust To Digital

The value of water surely precedes our recorded history and the idea of water as an essential symbol of power and transformation resonates through the ages. From Biblical tales of God using a flood to cleanse sin, to the films Oh Brother Where Art Thou (where the protagonists are saved from lynching by the damming of a valley to provide hydro-electric power) and Trouble the Water (the unbelievable documentary of the storm which tried in vain to wash away New Orleans). Water dominates our planet and our bodies. The flow from spring and stream to river and into sea is a commonly accepted metaphor for growth, death and natural paths through life. We can't survive without water, yet too much can kill us. No wonder then, that it is the symbol of baptism and immersion into a spiritual contract offering eternal life in heaven and willful abandonment of earthly imperfections.

I found it impossible to listen to this album from start to finish and instead enjoyed dipping in and out and skimming through the pictures and text over several months. Even doing so, I still haven't finished reading the entire book! I love "Babtist Shout" by Frank Jenkins of Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, not just for its misspelled name or because it does not feature any shouting or even vocals, but also as it is banjo playing in a stop-start style different from "the neverending rolls that later became a staple of bluegrass". "Baptism At Burning Bush" by Rev. Nathan Smith's Burning Bush Sunday School Pupils is a lovely rounded piece where the unaccompanied voices trade off, echo and harmonize with one another. The liner notes state that the Rev. Smith only made eight tracks in his one week recording career. By contrast, Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers made 200 records and enjoyed plenty of success on radio. Their Western-style narrative "Sister Lucy Lee" is the most swinging piece here.

Take Me To The Water has a host of vital tracks but Washington Phillips' "Denomination Blues" fits the collection like a glove. The great man is on wonderful form listing different approaches to baptism and, as was his fundamental reason to be, chastising all to remember that Jesus is the essential ingredient behind these divergent rituals. Phillips was what was called a 'jack-leg preacher': a man without a church who would roam around and deliver sermons where he could, accompanying himself on a self-made instrument. Religious haranguing has never sounded so good.

As mentioned, the photographs seem not-of-this-world. Indeed, a cynic might question their authenticy.  I am not doing that, just searching for words to convey their magical quality. Taken from the collection of Jim Linderman, the images convey to me a sense that we are witnessing a death every bit as much as a cleansing or a rebirth. The pictures show crowds standing as if transfixed in the reverential aftermath of a disaster while the water itself exudes a magnetic attraction. In searching for the motivation of the participants I'm reminded of a quote from Jonathan Raban's book Old Glory: An American Voyage. "Once I found the body of a drowned woman. She had left a note...rambling...but it didn't actually say she intended to kill herself. It seemed she had come to the river [The Thames] without knowing what she was going to do. Perhaps she believed that the mess and tangle of her life would somehow resolve itself if she could put it in perspective beside the bleak placidity of all that drifting water. It was probable, said the coroner, that she'd thrown herself into the river without premeditation; not really meaning to commit suicide, merely trying to assuage her misery and confusion in the comforting void of the Thames. He announced his verdict: death by misadventure."

Raban is planning a solo trip down the Mississippi. He relates to the woman: "I felt I understood what had drawn the woman to the river. I wanted to lose myself too...to put myself in the grip of a powerful current which could make my choices for me, to be literally adrift. The woman had gone to the river for solace and ended up drowning in it. I was going for much the same motive, but meant to stay afloat."

The Dust to Digital label sure knows how to pull off this kind of project. In terms of musical choices and visual art, their quality control is never askew. Take Me To The Water is a magnificent example of their exemplary approach to the preservation and re-presentation of spiritual culture. It will last.  

samples:

• Rev. Nathan Smith - Baptism at Burning Bush
• Washington Phillips - Denomination Blues
• Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers - Sister Lucy Lee

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22 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This, I believe, is the ninth full-length album that Tokyo’s Yasuhiko Fukuzono has released since 2004, but this young composer has somehow managed to balance his voluminous output with an unwavering elegance and painstaking meticulousness.  The glitchy pastoral ambience of Light in August, Later is certainly nothing new, but it is nevertheless done quite well…a bit too well, actually.  While technically flawless, there are too few cracks to allow very much emotion to seep in.

 

Someone Good

The eight pieces comprising this album are all very much of a hushed and shimmering piece, as the languorous spell begun with “Different Sky” continues unbroken for its duration.  It is very difficult to tell exactly which instruments Fukuzono is employing most of the time, as the source material is often laptopped into an amorphous, soft-focus haze.  Occasionally, some sparse acoustic guitar, crackling field recordings, or fragile piano will appear, but the backbone of the album is its omnipresent bed of warm, quavering drones.  That, of course, is perfectly fine by me, as the inability to distinguish individual elements serves the pervading hypnotic tranquility quite well.  Unfortunately, the corresponding sacrifice is that many of the songs lack distinct personalities.  While Yasuhiko’s understated amniotic soundscapes are always quite pleasant, they are also a bit bloodless and sterile and rarely leave a lingering memory behind them. 

To his credit, aus seems well aware of this and has attempted to break up the album with pieces that could be considered actual songs, albeit without departing very much from his gentle, sleepy template.  For this, he enlisted the dubious aid of Japanese vocalist Cokiyu.  I am decidedly not a fan of her Sigur Ros-esque vocals, as they are too meek and characterless for me, merely sounding like yet another heavily processed instrument.  However, they seem to have inexplicably had an invigorating effect on Fukuzono, as the vocal pieces are some of the most overtly melodic and human on the album (particularly “Little Song at Little Time,” which actually features a beat and a distinct crescendo of sorts). 

The album does not truly come alive until the end, however.  The penultimate track (“Remnant”) features some welcome feedback and sizzle that hint that aus is capable of something a bit deeper.  Unexpectedly, he then promptly delivers that depth with the epic closer “A World of Dazzle,” which stands out (alone, sadly) as a truly stirring and beautiful piece. While still characteristically slow-moving, fragile, and melancholic, it diverges from its predecessors by delivering strong and memorable melodies, a gritty underlying crackle, subtly oscillating dissonance, digitally mangled piano, and snaking, intertwining violins that snowball in intensity and emotion resonance. 

Fukuzono can certainly whip up an impressive slow-burning intensity when sets his mind to it, but it occurred far too seldom on Light in August, Later to make me a fan.  The raw material of a formidable artist is certainly evident, but aus will need to smash quite a few more holes in his protective wall of austere perfectionism to realize that potential.

Samples:

• Little Song at Little Time
• Opened
• A World of Dazzle

 

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15 November 2009

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This vinyl only release is the work of Ann Matthews and it is a hazy mix of childlike experimentation, a far cry from her usual work with Ectogram. She discards any of the usual approaches from her day job and explores her methods of songwriting and musicianship from a very different angle. Although initially difficult to digest, the music here is a wonderful mix of disintegrated pop and primal improvisation.

 

Atol

After delving under its surface, Brocken Spectre is a complicated album. On one hand, the songs do not rely on complex arrangements or even straightforward verse and chorus structures. Matthews instead pushes in another direction entirely, taking a looser approach to song structure. Her idiosyncratic style permeates the entire album, making it first appear self-indulgent and difficult to an outsider. The album was a blur for my first few listening sessions, finding a foothold within the music was a hard task even though I am familiar with Matthews’ work in Ectogram. However, with time I have come to appreciate (although not fully understand) Matthews’ approach. Brocken Spectre is an audio parallel of automatic writing. Her flow of consciousness take on recording brings together ideas that are strange but wonderful.

The first side of this LP is both familiar and alienating; Matthews’ voice instantly recognizable but the unusual playing style and frankly surreal mix (great use of stereo separation and creation of a 3D environment with these sounds) make the songs feel more intimidating than they should be. “Anomic Recipe” and “Know Your Vessels” both have an endearingly peculiar vibe. Contrary to these pieces, the end of side A features the stunning “Tony Wilson,” which shows Matthews at her most infectious. The eastern influence making the music feel light and the presence of a distinct beat drives the song. It sticks out amongst the other songs on Brocken Spectre as Matthews deviates from the open structures she adopts on most of other pieces.

Things get weirder on side B but at this point I am firmly in Matthews’ world and can appreciate the surroundings far more easily. The clarinet on “Eve’s Drop” sounds like some unhappy creature from a fairy tale; slowly it becomes enchanted by Matthews’ singing and the beast is calmed. Elsewhere, Matthews employs the click of a Biro pen and the sound of rocks being hit together to drive “Corn Curl.” While such odd instrumentation is expected from someone who has worked with Faust in the past, her use of these and other usually non-musical sources never seem contrived. I cannot help but feel that Matthews is in love with sound.

Brocken Spectre is self-indulgent and lacks focus. Yet although these notions would normally be negative criticisms, this serves more as a warning to lazy listeners than a deterrent to all listeners. Matthews has moved away from her comfort zone and made something very personal. Not everyone will get it but sometimes not getting it is what makes an album work. In this case, I certainly do not get it but I enjoy it nonetheless.

samples:

• Tony Wilson
• Sudden Desert
• Corn Curl

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