Richard Skelton, "Front Variations (One & Two)"

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Albums and Singles

cover image

It occurred to me the other day that Richard Skelton's artistic trajectory almost resembles the stuff of myth and folklore, as he was once akin to an enchanted bard who made achingly gorgeous and sensuously churning music full of life, heartache, passion, and darkly flickering light. Gradually, however, he became so disillusioned with mankind that he started playing for the moors, the hills, the earth, and the buried remnants of the distant past instead. Or, in his more ambitious moments, for the cosmos themselves. With the comparatively modest and exploratory Front Variations, however, Skelton is not straining for the stars nor focusing his elemental power to world-shaking intensity, but instead uses the disappearing ice sheets of Iceland as an unconventional muse for a pair of slow-motion feedback experiments.

Aeolian

Appropriately, the two "Front Variations" were both birthed in Iceland, as Skelton lived in Seyðisfjörður during a residency back in 2016.The theme of the residency was "Frontiers in Retreat," which seems to be one that Skelton took quite literally and adhered to faithfully.Front Variations is specifically inspired by the ice-albedo feedback mechanism, which is kind of a natural death-spiral of sorts: ice sheets reflect solar radiation, so as their surface area decreases, the earth absorbs more solar radiation (less is being reflected).Absorbing more solar radiation naturally means higher temperatures, which means more melting ice…which means even less reflection of solar radiation…and then even higher temperatures, less ice, etc.With these two longform pieces, Skelton gamely tries to replicate this phenomenon through a simple palette of sine waves subjected to escalating erosion from feedback, distortion, and ring modulation.The resulting sound art is roughly akin to dark ambient, as the decaying waves manifest themselves primarily as a murky, subterranean-sounding hum further clouded by shifting and dissonant overtones and ugly harmonies.Unlike drone or dark ambient music, however, there is an organic unpredictability that pervades the brooding thrum, as the changing harmonies create oscillations and throbs that continually blossom and dissolve.Also, the textures and the frequencies are similarly fluid, as the deep, seismic hum periodically breaks into an eerie whines, hollow ringing, or scorched and corroded-sounding ruin.

Given their identical foundation, the two versions of Front Variations share quite a lot of aesthetic territory, but there are some significant differences in their overall feel.The first variation feels like an ominous hum slowly rising from a wind-blasted and inhospitable arctic wasteland.At times, it coheres into a hollow pulse, yet any sense of structure or appealing melodic convergence seems to be entirely chance-based and ephemeral.The most striking moments tend to be those in which Skelton's mutated sine wave unexpected transforms into a deep, slow-motion howl that feels like it is emanating from the bowels of the earth.There are also some nice textural touches that surface as well, as the blurred thrum sometimes approximates an eerily bell-like timbre or swells into ragged, blown-out signal overload.The superior second variation takes things a bit further: rather than sounding like some ageless horror has started to awaken deep beneath the ice, it now feels like the ice itself has started to menacingly shake and warp.Again, however, the unpredictable interplay of the feedback and the sine wave dictate the arc, so there is no focused and linear escalation towards a full-on ice-quake.Rather, the deep and hollow thrum endlessly twists, plunges, waxes, wanes, roars, and subsides on its own glacial timescale.The howling crescendos just happen to be a bit more shuddering and visceral this time around.

While the sine wave's transformations are certainly quite intriguing and heavy at times, the comparative absence of Skelton's compositional hand unavoidably makes Front Variations in somewhat minor release in his discography.It is more of a process-centric experiment than a truly satisfying aesthetic work, which I suppose was its intention: set up a system that mirrors the decay of a massive ice shelf and see what happens.The results of that experiment were certainly worth releasing, but I suspect they will be primarily of interest to serious fans of sound art who have a deep appreciation for the subtleties of colliding frequencies and their resultant oscillations.As for everyone else, Front Variations is memorable largely for (unintentionally) beingthe closest evocation of the Dyatlov Pass Incident infrasound theory that I have heard to date: this is the sound of an inhospitable frozen void that has unnervingly come to life with creeping subterranean menace.

Samples can be found here.

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Matmos, "Plastic Anniversary"

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Albums and Singles
Matmos announce new album
Plastic Anniversary
Due out March 15th, 2019

Watch the trailer:
https://youtu.be/tKs57sl4_fA

Plastic Anniversary features music crafted entirely out of sounds sourced from plastic objects

Matmos will tour Plastic Anniversary worldwide
Matmos by Theo Anthony

Praise for Matmos' 2016 album Ultimate Care II:
"Samples of gurgles and motor noise, along with live drumming on its metal sides, made a piece that was sometimes abstract, sometimes rhythmic, sometimes silly." - New York Times

“Maybe this is what "heavy metal" should be from now on?” - Time Magazine

"One of the most purely enjoyable albums I've heard recently - more so than most of the purely electronic works I stumbled across -- must come from this interweaving of the real and the power of the virtual.” - The Wire

Thrill Jockey Records is pleased to announce Plastic Anniversary, the new album by Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos, due out March 15th, 2019. Pushing off from the restricted palette of their last album, the critically acclaimed Ultimate Care II, which was composed entirely from the sound of a washing machine, Plastic Anniversary is also derived from a single sound source: plastic. The album was crafted as a celebration of Matmos' Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt's own anniversary as a couple and explores the world's relationship to plastic - a material whose durability, portability and longevity, while heralded by its makers, are the very qualities that make it a force of environmental devastation. Through its reliance on discarded plastic, the album shows at once the boundless creativity of Matmos and pervasive nature of the material, and therefore the urgency for solutions.

True to form, the band have assembled a promiscuous array of examples of this sturdy-yet-ersatz family of materials to create the sounds on the record: Bakelite dominos, Styrofoam coolers, police riot shields, polyethylene waste containers, PVC panpipes, pinpricks of bubble wrap, silicone gel breast implants and synthetic human fat. The bounce and snap of the duo’s programmed rhythms are supplemented by a sweatier and more unruly human element than on previous releases, provided by a surprising cast of guest musicians including Members of the horn and drumline sections of the Whitefish Highschool Bulldogs from Whitefish, Montana and drummer Greg Saunier of Deerhoof.

Over the course of the album, Matmos glide from the tongue-in-cheek fun of "Breaking Bread" to Cronenbergian body-horror yet sunny grooves of "Interior with Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat" and "Silicone Gel Implant." If side one is playful and poppy, side two is sharper and darker in its implications, with the ominous political and sonic allusions of "Thermoplastic Riot Shield" and "Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom." After a volatile and vibrant suite of poppy plastic electronics, Plastic Anniversary ends in an acknowledgement of the planetary price yet to be paid.
Watch the trailer for Matmos' Plastic Anniversary:
https://youtu.be/tKs57sl4_fA

Embed:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="/https://www.youtube.com/embed/tKs57sl4_fA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Matmos - Plastic Anniversary
1. Breaking Bread
2. The Crying Pill
3. Interior With Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat
4. Extending The Plastisphere To GJ237b
5. Silicone Gel Implant
6. Plastic Anniversary
7. Thermoplastic Riot Shield
8. Fanfare For Polyethylene Waste Containers
9. The Singing Tube
10. Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom
11. Plastisphere

Pre-order Matmos' Plastic Anniversary:
https://thrilljockey.com/products/plastic-anniversary

 


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Eliane Radigue, "Geelriandre/Arthesis"

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Albums and Singles

Eliane Radigue

Geelriandre/Arthesis is named for the pieces that fill its two sides.  "Geelriandre," realized on an ARP 2500 synthesizer in 1972, features Gérard Fremy on prepared piano, for whom the piece was originally composed.  "Arthesis," realized using the University of Iowa's Moog in 1973, comprises the full duration of side B.

Eliane Radigue has received much deserved praise for her transcendent compositions for tape, synthesizers and acoustic instruments.  Her work is deep, slowly changing and timelessly resonant with timbre so dense you can listen through the sound to find infinity.  Accute physicality, overtones and psychoacoustic activity fills your space, follows you, grounds you, pulls you in or lets you go.  It's all here/hear.

More information can be found here.


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1997 Readers Poll: The Results

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Albums and Singles

In 1997, the independent music business was thriving worldwide, musical acts were reaching new audiences via the World Wide Web, and the economy was booming. Brainwashed.com was a year old, and we had not even begun to start conduction Annual Readers Polls. However, we began expanding the domain to host sites for independent labels and distributors like Kranky, Thrill Jockey, Happy Go Lucky, RRRecords, and World Serpent Distribution along with the multitude of sites we were hosting for musical acts.

It has been a pleasure to revisit the music of 1997 and we appreciate all the time and effort put in by the readers to make your opinions known.

Album of the Year

  1. Godspeed You Black Emperor!, ""F# A# ‚àû"" (Constellation)
  2. Spiritualized, ""Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space"" (Dedicated)
  3. Autechre, ""Chiastic Slide"" (Warp)
  4. Labradford, ""Mi Media Naranja"" (Kranky)
  5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ""The Boatman's Call"" (Mute)
  6. Stars of the Lid, ""The Ballasted Orchestra"" (kranky)
  7. Nurse With Wound / Aranos, ""Acts of Senseless Beauty"" (United Dairies)
  8. Mogwai, ""Young Team"" (Chemikal Underground)
  9. Matmos, ""Matmos"" (Vague Terrain)
  10. Stereolab, ""Dots and Loops"" (Duophonic)
  11. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Hallway of The Gods"" (Soleilmoon)
  12. Panasonic, ""Kulma"" (Mute)
  13. Squarepusher, ""Hard Normal Daddy"" (Warp)
  14. Mouse On Mars, ""Autoditacker"" (Too Pure)
  15. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Chemical Playschool 10"" (Soleilmoon)
  16. Mouse On Mars, ""Instrumentals"" (Thrill Jockey)
  17. Current 93, ""In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land"" (Durtro)
  18. Scott Walker, ""Tilt"" (Drag City)
  19. Third Eye Foundation, the, ""Ghost"" (Domino)
  20. Yo La Tengo, ""I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One"" (Matador)
  21. He Said Omala, ""Catch Supposes"" (Origin)
  22. Pan•American, ""Pan•American"" (Kranky)
  23. Biosphere, ""Substrata"" (All Saints)
  24. GusGus, ""Polydistortion"" (4AD)
  25. Keiji Haino, ""So, Black is Myself"" (Alien8)
  26. Jessica Bailiff, ""Even in Silence"" (Kranky)
  27. Scala, ""Beauty Nowhere"" (Touch)
  28. Main, ""Deliquescence"" (Beggars Banquet)
  29. Amp, ""Astralmoonbeamprojections"" (Kranky)
  30. Songs: Ohia, ""Songs: Ohia"" (Secretly Canadian)
  31. Elliott Smith, ""Either/Or"" (Kill Rock Stars)
  32. Robert Wyatt, ""Shleep"" (Hannibal)
  33. He Said Omala, ""Matching Crosses"" (Origin)
  34. Mark Van Hoen, ""The Last Flowers From The Darkness"" (Touch)
  35. Locust, ""Morning Light"" (Apollo)
  36. Squarepusher, ""Burningn'n Tree"" (Warp)
  37. Download, ""III"" (Subconscious)
  38. Sigur Rós, ""Von"" (Smekkleysa)
  39. Christoph Heemann, ""Days Of The Eclipse"" (Barooni)
  40. Dead Voices On Air, ""How Hollow Heart... [Live]"" (Invisible)
  41. Fennesz, ""Hotel Paral.lel"" (Mego)
  42. Isotope 217°, ""The Unstable Molecule"" (Thrill Jockey)
  43. Godflesh, ""Love And Hate In Dub"" (Earache)
  44. The American Analog Set, ""From Our Living Room To Yours"" (Emperor Jones)
  45. Trans Am, ""Surrender to the Night"" (Thrill Jockey)
  46. Scorn, ""Whine"" (Kk)
  47. Aerial M, ""Aerial M"" (Drag City)
  48. Laika, ""Sounds of the Satellites"" (Too Pure)
  49. Cornelius, ""Fantasma"" (Matador)
  50. Amon Tobin, ""Bricolage"" (Ninja Tune)
  51. Bruce Gilbert, ""In Esse"" (Mute)
  52. To Rococo Rot, ""Veiculo"" (Emperor Jones)
  53. Sandoz [Richard H. Kirk], ""God Bless The Conspiracy"" (Touch)
  54. µ-Ziq, ""Lunatic Harness"" (Planet Mu)
  55. Aranos, ""Transfixatio"" (Noise Museum)
  56. Pizzicato Five, ""Happy End of the World"" (Matador)
  57. Dark Magus [Richard H. Kirk], ""Night Watchmen"" (Alphaphone)
  58. The American Analog Set, ""Bliss Out Vol. 9 - Late One Sunday & The Following Morning"" (Darla)
  59. Bill Laswell, ""City Of Light"" (Sub Rosa)
  60. The Sea and Cake, ""The Fawn"" (Thrill Jockey)
  61. Amp, ""Bliss out v.4 - Perception"" (Darla)
  62. Fridge, ""Ceefax"" (Output)
  63. Add N to (X), ""Vero Electronics"" (Blow Up)
  64. Whitehouse, ""Great White Death"" (Susan Lawly)
  65. Blonde Redhead, ""Fake Can Be Just As Good"" (Touch and Go)
  66. Aube, ""Aqua Syndrome"" (Manifold)
  67. Pavement, ""Brighten the Corners"" (Matador)
  68. Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, ""Bin Shaker Dub"" (M)
  69. Bowery Electric, ""Vertigo"" (Beggars Banquet)
  70. Mark Eitzel, ""Lover's Leap USA"" (self-released)
  71. Muslimgauze, ""Zuriff Moussa"" (Staalplaat)
  72. O.Rang, ""Field And Waves"" (Echo)
  73. Ida, ""Ten Small Paces"" (Simple Machines)
  74. Can, ""Sacrilege: The Remixes"" (Spoon)
  75. The Bug, ""Tapping The Conversation"" (WordSound)
  76. Bardo Pond, ""Lapsed"" (Matador)
  77. Scorn, ""Zander"" (Kk)
  78. Babacar, ""Babacar"" (Mesmer)
  79. Jessamine, ""Don't Stay Too Long"" (Kranky)
  80. Mick Turner, ""Tren Phantasma"" (Drag City)
  81. Surgeon, ""Basic Tonal Vocabulary"" (Tresor)
  82. Smog, ""Red Apple Falls"" (Drag City)
  83. Philosopher's Stone, ""Preparation"" (Kranky)
  84. Lustmord vs Metal Beast, ""Lustmord vs Metal Beast"" (Side effects)
  85. OOIOO, ""‚àû8‚àû"" (Time Bomb)
  86. Magnog, ""More Weather"" (Kranky)
  87. Nocturnal Emissions, ""Tharmuncrape An'goo"" (Soleilmoon)
  88. Boxhead Ensemble, ""Dutch Harbor: Where The Sea Breaks Its Back (Original Film Soundtrack)"" (Atavistic)
  89. Rapoon, ""Easterly 6 Or 7"" (Staalplaat)
  90. The Fall, ""Levitate"" (Artful)
  91. Bill Laswell, ""Oscillations Remixes"" (Sub Rosa)
  92. Einstürzende Neubauten, ""Ende Neu Remixes"" (Mute)
  93. Sleater-Kinney, ""Dig Me Out"" (Matador)
  94. Aube, ""Cardiac Strain"" (Alien8)
  95. Scanner, ""Delilvery"" (Earache)
  96. Nocturnal Emissions, ""Sunspot Activity"" (Soleilmoon)
  97. Thomas Dimuzio, ""Sonicism"" (RRRecords)
  98. Mick Harvey, ""Pink Elephants"" (Mute)
  99. Long Fin Killie, ""Amelia"" (Too Pure)
  100. Tied + Tickled Trio, ""Tied + Tickled Trio"" (Payola)

 

Single of the Year

  1. Stereolab & Nurse With Wound, ""Simple Headphone Mind"" (Duophonic)
  2. Autechre, ""Envane"" (Warp)
  3. Squarepusher, ""Big Loada"" (Warp)
  4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ""Into My Arms"" (Mute)
  5. Low, ""Songs for a Dead Pilot"" (Kranky)
  6. Stereolab, ""Miss Modular"" (Duophonic)
  7. Autechre, ""Cichlisuite"" (Warp)
  8. Marc Almond And Foetus, ""Flesh Volcano - Slut"" (Some Bizzare)
  9. Windy & Carl, ""Bliss Out Vol. 2 - Antarctica"" (Darla)
  10. Mogwai, ""4 Satin"" (Chemikal Underground)
  11. Organum, ""Kammer"" (Matchless)
  12. Low, ""Venus"" (Sub Pop)
  13. Mouse On Mars, ""Twift"" (Too Pure)
  14. Sonic Youth, ""Musical Perspectives 2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom"" (Sonic Youth Records)
  15. Scala, ""Slide"" (Too Pure)
  16. New Order, ""Video 5-8-6"" (Touch)
  17. Mouse On Mars, ""Cache Coeur naif"" (Too Pure)
  18. Sonic Youth, ""Musical Perspectives 1: Anagrama"" (Sonic Youth Records)
  19. Spiritualized, ""Think I'm In Love"" (Dedicated)
  20. Windy & Carl, ""A Dream of Blue"" (Ochre)
  21. HÖH / Current 93, ""Crowleymass"" (Durtro)
  22. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Sterre"" (SPV)
  23. Wir, ""Vien"" (Touch)
  24. Stereolab, ""Iron Man"" (Duophonic)
  25. Squarepusher, ""Vic Acid"" (Warp)
  26. Fridge, ""Lign"" (Output)
  27. Mogwai, ""New Paths to Helicon"" (Wurlitzer Jukebox)
  28. Low, ""If You Were Born Today (Song for Little Baby Jesus)"" (Wurlitzer Jukebox)
  29. Pram, ""The Last Astronaut"" (Kooky)
  30. Labradford / Stars of the Lid, ""The Kahanek Incident, Vol. 3"" (Trance Syndicate)
  31. Spiritualized, ""Electricity"" (Dedicated)
  32. GusGus, ""Believe"" (4AD)
  33. Dirty Three / Low, ""Obvious Is Obvious (Instrumental Version)/No Need"" (Touch and Go)
  34. Fridge, ""Anglepoised"" (Output)
  35. Fridge, ""Lojen"" (Output)
  36. Mika Vainio, ""Onko"" (Touch)
  37. Hood, ""Useless"" (Domino)
  38. Praxis, ""1984"" (Subharmonic)
  39. Foetus, ""Null/Void"" (Big Cat)
  40. Ida, ""Poor Dumb Bird"" (Simple Machines)
  41. Belle and Sebastian, ""Lazy Line Painter Jane"" (Jeepster)
  42. Piano Magic, ""For Engineers"" (Wurlitzer Jukebox)
  43. Yo La Tengo, ""Autumn Sweater"" (Matador)
  44. Aerial M, ""M is ..."" (Drag City)
  45. [V/A], ""Whine And Missingtoe"" (V/Vm Test Records)
  46. Babacar, ""Midsummer"" (Mesmer)
  47. Bowery Electric, ""Blow Up/Electro Sleep"" (Happy Go Lucky)
  48. Brokeback, ""Returns to the Orange Grove"" (Thrill Jockey)
  49. GusGus, ""Standard Stuff for Drama"" (4AD)
  50. Sugar Plant, ""Licorice / Impure"" (World Domination)



Vault/Reissue of the Year

  1. Coil, ""Unnatural History III"" (Threshold House)
  2. Nurse With Wound, ""Spiral Insana"" (United Dairies)
  3. Nurse With Wound, ""A Missing Sense"" (United Dairies)
  4. Stars of the Lid, ""Gravitational Pull vs. The Desire for an Aquatic Life"" (Kranky)
  5. Psychic TV, ""Force the Hand of Chance"" (Some Bizarre)
  6. Broadcast, ""Work and Non Work"" (Warp)
  7. Current 93, ""Horsey"" (Durtro)
  8. Mogwai, ""Ten Rapid"" (Rock Action)
  9. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Under Triple Moons"" (ROIR)
  10. Zos Kia/Coil, ""Transparent"" (Eskaton)
  11. Current 93, ""Dog's Blood Order"" (Durtro)
  12. Death in June, ""Discriminate '81-'97"" (NER)
  13. Wire, ""Coatings"" (WMO)
  14. Cranes, ""EP Collection Volumes 1&2"" (Dedicated)
  15. Ø, ""Tulkinta"" (Sähkö Recordings)
  16. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Stained Glass Soma Fountains"" (Soleilmoon)
  17. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Ancient Daze"" (Terminal Kaleidoscope)
  18. Ghost, ""Ghost"" (Drag City)
  19. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Live 1989"" (Terminal Kaleidoscope)
  20. The Legendary Pink Dots, ""Live 85-88"" (Terminal Kaleidoscope)
  21. Ghost, ""Temple Stone"" (Drag City)
  22. The Notwist, ""12"" (Zero Hour)
  23. The Missing Brazilians, ""Warzone"" (On-U Sound)
  24. Throbbing Gristle, ""Kreeme Horn"" (Dossier)
  25. Pankow, ""Wodka, Erdbeeren Und Weitere Katastrophen"" (Blank Your Mind)




Various Artist Compilation of the Year

  1. ""Four Years in 30 Seconds"" (Dirter)
  2. ""Terra Serpantes"" (World Serpent)
  3. ""The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations"" (Iridal Discs)
  4. ""Natures Mortes - Still Lives"" (4AD)
  5. ""Paradigm Shift"" (Subconscious)
  6. ""Macro Dub Infection Voume 2"" (Gyroscope)
  7. ""Skampler"" (Skam)
  8. ""Das Digitale Vertrauen"" (Soleilmoon)
  9. ""Chill Out"" (Sabotage)
  10. ""Globus and Decibel"" (Freedom in a Vacuum)
  11. ""Dubwise & Otherwise"" (Blood and Fire)
  12. ""Sonics Everywhere"" (Invisible)
  13. ""Mort Aux Vaches: Flying Saucer Attack / Main / White Winged Moth"" (Mort Aux Vaches)
  14. ""Touch. Sampler"" (Touch)
  15. ""Joyride: Music from the Motion Picture"" (4AD)
  16. ""What's Up Matador?"" (Matador)
  17. ""The Corners Of The Mouth"" (Bubble Core)
  18. ""0161"" (Skam)
  19. ""We Hate You - A Small Tribute To Throbbing Gristle"" (Jazzassin)
  20. ""Wow! & Flutter"" (Too Pure)

 

Boxed Set of the Year

  1. Bruce Gilbert, ""The Haring"" (WMO)
  2. [V/A], ""Anthology of American Folk Music"" (Smithsonian Folkways)
  3. The Residents, ""Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses"" (Euro Ralph)
  4. Primal Scream, ""Vanishing Point"" (Creation)
  5. [V/A], ""Anon"" (Castle Von Buhler)
  6. [V/A], ""Sally's Photographic Memory"" (Volume)
  7. Roland Kayn, ""Tektra"" (Barooni)
  8. Aube, ""Dazzle Reflexion"" (The Releasing Eskimo)
  9. Pixies, ""Death to the Pixies"" (4AD)
  10. Death in June, ""Die Schuldigen Und Der Nebel"" (NER)

 

Artist of the Year

 


The Legendary Pink Dots

Label of the Year

  1. Kranky
  2. Warp
  3. Soleilmoon
  4. Mute
  5. Too Pure
  6. Drag City
  7. Thrill Jockey
  8. Matador
  9. Duophonic
  10. United Dairies

 

Worst Album of the Year

  1. Coldcut, ""More Beats + Pieces"" (Ninja Tune)
  2. Rehberg & Bauer, ""Faßt"" (Touch)
  3. Sofa, ""Grey"" (Constellation)
  4. Ordo Equilibrio, ""The Triumph Of Light... And Thy Thirteen Shadows Of Love"" (Cold Meat Industry)
  5. Damon & Naomi, ""More Sad Hits"" (Sub Pop)
  6. Lambchop, ""Thriller"" (Merge)
  7. Cerberus Shoal, ""Elements Of Structure / Permanence"" (AudioInformationPhenomena)
  8. Future Bible Heroes, ""Memories Of Love"" (Elefant)
  9. Michael Brook, ""Albino Alligator"" (4AD)
  10. The Herbaliser, ""Blow Your Headphones"" (Ninja Tune)




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"Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990"

Administrator
Albums and Singles

Light In The Attic's Japan Archival Series continues with Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, an unprecedented overview of the country’s vital minimal, ambient, avant-garde, and New Age music – what can collectively be described as kankyō ongaku, or environmental music. The collection features internationally acclaimed artists such as Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, as well as other pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima and Satoshi Ashikawa, who deserve a place alongside the indisputable giants of these genres.

In the 1970s, the concepts of Brian Eno's "ambient" and Erik Satie's "furniture music" began to take hold in the minds of artists and musicians around Tokyo. Emerging fields like soundscape design and architectural acoustics opened up new ways in which sound and music could be consumed. For artists like Yoshimura, Ojima and Ashikawa, these ideas became the foundation for their musical works, which were heard not only on records and in live performances, but also within public and private spaces where they intermingled with the sounds and environments of everyday life. The bubble economy of 1980s Japan also had a hand in the advancement of kankyō ongaku. In an attempt to cultivate an image of sophisticated lifestyle, corporations with expendable income bankrolled various art and music initiatives, which opened up new and unorthodox ways in which artists could integrate their avant-garde musical forms into everyday life: in-store music for Muji, promo LP for a Sanyo AC unit, a Seiko watch advert, among others that can be heard in this collection.

Kankyō Ongaku is expertly compiled by Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) who, with a series of revelatory mixtapes as well as his label Empire of Signs (Music For Nine Postcards), has been instrumental in shepherding interest in this music outside of Japan. Together with Light In The Attic's celebrated anthologies I Am The Center and The Microcosm, Kankyō Ongaku helps to broaden our understanding of this quietly profound music, regardless of the environment in which it is heard.

Out February 2019 on Light in the Attic.


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Croatian Amor, "Isa"

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Albums and Singles

In 2019 Croatian Amor returns with a new album, Isa.

Copenhagen's Loke Rahbek works in a wide variety of forms. His prolific rate of activity is best viewed through his and Christian Stadgaard's Posh Isolation label. Of Rahbek's many projects, his most eloquent and gentle is Croatian Amor.

2017’s single "Finding People" bloomed from Croatian Amor's previous album, the widely acclaimed Love Means Taking Action. These melancholic transmissions presented a kind of alien pop. For Isa, he has drawn on an impressive list of guests to realize a nauseating narrative of virtual communication and eschatological programming. The album's title invokes a messianic entity, and though it's hard to tell what's imagined or remembered anymore, the play that Croatian Amor is known for feels far more vivid today.

"Enhance photo to reveal a picture of Bird caught mid-flight; enhance again, the bird has a human face screaming."

Never pessimistic, Croatian Amor circles themes of tragedy and comfort to animate a sense of hope. His accomplices pluck details from his graphic scenes like a searchlight drifting over a starlit surface. Alto Aria, Soho Rezanejad, and Jonnine Standish of HTRK, each contribute vocals across the album, cloaked and kerned on Croatian Amor's inimitable stage. "Eden 1.1" and its accompaniment "Eden 1.2" feature the voices of Frederikke Hoffmeier and Yves Tumor, respectively. These are some of album's most delicate pieces, and where one may find respite from the helix of damaged rhythms that eddy across 'Isa'. Familiar faces from Copenhagen are solicited throughout, and perhaps the album's most endearing quality is the space for volatility that all of the collaboration has invited. 

All the signals and timelines lead everywhere and back. Maybe it's only the myths that get us?

More information can be found here.


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Hekla, "Á"

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Albums and Singles

Hekla's music exists singularly. A one-off talent, emerging from no particular scene, ascribing to no particular rules.

As a creative tool, the theremin - bizarre, unique, and rarely heard - can be expressive, intuitive and highly adaptable. In Hekla's hands, her instrument covers an enormous range, from skittering birdsong of high frequency chirrups and chirps, to grinding, tectonic sub-bass. We are given the throbbing, apocalyptic dread of "Muddle" and the baroque beauty of traditional Icelandic hymn "Heyr Himna Smi∂ur" in sequential tracks on the album's A-Side.  Appropriately, she also writes that the album title - Á - is similarly multifaceted in her native Icelandic: "a river is an á and also it means ouch like when you hurt yourself, and also when you put something on top of something you put it á (on) something."

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The Dead C, "Rare Ravers"

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Albums and Singles

Disguised as the meandering outpourings of vacant thought and activity dialed simultaneously from zero and ten. Formed in the cauldron of a fevered mistake resolute. Surrounded by ignorance, dis-interest, and the attention of the carefully self-selected. Recorded and burned through a thousand galaxies of dust and doubt and endless infinite wonder, transforming both time and space. Forever exiled to the very bottom of the world to reflect on the struggling desperate pile above. Recognizing any contribution as minuscule and insignificant when placed within the greatness of the other, the dominant insolent preening satisfied, continually shouting the pre-eminence of the first world order.

It's a long player.

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Machinefabriek with Anne Bakker, "Short Scenes"

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Albums and Singles

Short Scenes came to life when working on a soundtrack with violinist Anne Bakker. Taking a series of her improvisations as the starting point, I started to edit and construct them into new songs - no preconceived plan, just being lead by these violin recordings. Still working in the "soundtrack modus operandi," the resulting tracks are short and concise. None of them ended up being used in a score, but from the very beginning I felt these little vignettes would form a darn fine album. And here it is.

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Koray Kantarcioğlu, "Loopworks"

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Albums and Singles

Originally released by Wounded Wolf Press as a limited release (only 100 cassettes were made) back in 2016, Loopworks finds Turkish visual and sound artist Koray Kantarcioğlu (Ankara, 1982) exploring the unlimited possibilities of databending. As source material Koray used samples he dug from Turkish records that were released in the 1960s and 1970s, creating this unique sound using various effects, such as reverb, echo and tempo.

Loopworks impacts almost instantly mainly because it shows some familiarity with the recent work of Leyland Kirby as The Caretaker, particularly because of the "haunted ballroom" effect. Kirby connects more with the idea of memory and its disappearance/transformation, Koray Kantarcioğlu explores the usage and the dynamic of these sounds as ambient music for different scenarios and the importance of a new-found life of the raw material he used to create these songs. The source material appear as enigmatic as these new sounds and activate a sense of discovery and constant wonder throughout Loopworks.

With the vinyl release of Loopworks we continue to manifest the importance of showing how technology and geography create different and original approaches to the standard western interpretation of field recordings and sound manipulation. Koray Kantarcioğlu’s work here is a strong manifestation of that and how "haunted music" can express myriad feelings and sensations.

Loopworks has a tremendous vision of the metamorphosis that's been occurring in ambient music during the last decade. Sometimes it is dreamy and calm as aquarium music is ("500606" or "22 47 91 Take 1"); surprising and infinite as "263 Loop," one of the few tracks with a voice, in this case a mysterious and transcendental one; or part of a John Carpenter & David Lynch film yet to be made ("Organ Extract KP 001").

A fantastic voyage, from earth to space, through time or simply as the most beautiful and peaceful dive into the ocean. Old music transformed into something new, unique.  That's special.

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PLYXY, "Gloryland"

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Albums and Singles

Originally issued by Ascetic House as a small limited-run cassette release in early 2018, PLYXY's debut EP Gloryland will now be available on vinyl and digital formats by Hallow Ground.

Haunted by the pressing question, "What if?," the five compositions on Gloryland aim to create, in the words of the artist, Ros Knopov, himself, "a hyper-visual audio landscape of a world somebody listening can fall into and drown in."

The term "nostalgia" originally referred to the longing for a place. The nostalgia that informs Gloryland is PLYXY's longing for his cultural-geographic roots while feeling adrift in an alien environment. Born in Dnepropetrovsk, then the rocket-making capital of the USSR, Knopov immigrated to New York City as a child in 1989.  In Gloryland, he dives deep into his uneasy childhood memories and their warped reflections. PLYXY marks the unreliability of his recollections by making it heard - the anthemic qualities of the five pieces are coated in an opaque layer of dream-like textures. From the elegiac opener, "It Will Be Beautiful," to the blaring rhythmic noise of "March of Youth," the greyscale picture painted by Gloryland becomes more and more refined below the surface.

PLYXY's search for a past is, however, less a sentimental journey, and more a radical confrontation with the politics of memory and the materials that serve as mnemonic devices. Gloryland draws on field recordings from Knopov's adopted hometown New York and Soviet films as well as performances from his collection of analog and digital keyboards, with the results filtered and re-textured through the producer's modular synthesizer setup acting as the final editorial layer in the creative process. The result is lush and warm throughout, but also demure and distant. While Gloryland might thus easily be pigeonholed as a hauntological record, it is one only in the term's most radical sense. After all, any "What if?" might turn into a "Why not?"

More information can be found here.


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  1. Etelin, "Hui Terra"
  2. Attilio Novellino, "A Conscious Effort"
  3. 1998 Readers Poll Re-Count - The Results
  4. Sean McCann, "Saccharine Scores"

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