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This 1995 album is one of those extraordinarily rare instances in which a remix album was actually a great idea. For one, it focuses almost entirely on material from Evanescence, an album that many (myself included) consider to be Scorn's peak, capturing Mick Harris during that all-too-brief nexus in which his more visceral impulses and his love of disquieting ambiance were in perfect balance. Then, of course, he managed to assemble several of the most compelling and uncompromising denizens of electronic music's shadowy fringes (Coil, Autechre, etc.) to warp it all to their liking.
The major recurrent theme for Soundway compilations is documenting that fragile and fleeting period when two cultures collide and the resulting music still seems exciting, fresh, and revolutionary. Palenque Palenque certainly fits nicely within that aesthetic, but the absorption of African music into Colombia did not follow a predictable path all, as this is a deeply strange and somewhat baffling album (albeit quite a likable one). Rather than sounding like a Latinized Fela Kuti, some of the artists more closely resemble a young Steve Reich on amphetamines trying to construct an Afro-Latin dance album from tape loops.
This piece for two pianos and a viola was one of the last pieces Luc Ferrari wrote and this recording documents its posthumous premiere along with a rehearsal performance. The two sides of this LP demonstrate that Ferrari was by no means running out of steam by the end of his life. The music as captivating as any of his other works for conventional instrumentation. Tense, violent and beautiful, Didascalies 2 is a potent reminder of Ferrari’s talent as a composer.
For this album the Magic Carpathians have played many roles: field guides, sonic scouts, and acoustic archaeologists investigating the musical heritage of the land they call their home. They have been applying the varnish to some improvised sessions recorded over a nearly sleepless two day period high up in a mountain lodge back in 2008. The results are like the whorls in a piece of wood picked up off the forest floor: fractal like, mesmerizing and endlessly intricate.
Mark Nelson (Pan American), Frank Bretschneider (Komet) and Joe Kingman (Fisherofgold) are given only one restriction for this project: approximately 15 minutes apiece to subjectively express themselves. I wonder why only 48 minutes total when most discs and players can accommodate 75-80? That question aside, volume 1 of this artist friendly series from Quatermass is a solid collection of complementary tracks.
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There's a lot of electronic music out there that either plain bores or annoys the absolute piss out of me. So much of it sounds the same, and what it sounds like is something so pedestrian that it was all created using standard ACID loop libraries. That's why it's so refreshing when something like loscil comes around. "Triple Point" is a fantastic release just based upon the rather unique palette of sounds here. But there's so much more going on in the mix. Sampled sounds so buried you really only hear them faintly, and treated keyboards that sound hollow and distant have such an eerie effect. Each track starts of easy enough, but builds to amazing heights as more sounds are added and volume increases. Scott Morgan, who is loscil, has an amazing ear, as these songs are dense and droned-out but you never lose sense of this music and Morgan never lets you stray from the path long. "Triple Point" is reportedly based on the concepts of thermodynamics, and that couldn't be a more appropriate analogy for the effect this music has on the listener. It soothes, it relaxes, it resonates with a warmth that almost defies description, and it propels you in the same instant, willing you to create or submit to its will. Never has an artist's debut on a label impressed me more. loscil has obviously just begun, and there's great promise for the future.
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It has been three years since the last Amp (proper) full-lengther, the phenomenal 'Stenorette' release on Kranky (produced by Robert Hampson of Main). Since then, there have been a couple releases as A.M.P. Studio (but don't ask me to describe the distinction between entities). While the world awaits another full-length masterpiece, the group has decided to collect recordings made on the road during their 1998/99 European tour, from in-studio performances at AJZ radio in Switzerland and the famed VPRO in the Netherlands.
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The sixth album in his Selbstportrait series, this is one of the best. Hans-Joachim Roedelius created this mini-masterpiece during the mid '70s, drawing on various recordings from his career at that time and building on them with added instrumentation and a wider selection of tones, structures and styles. The end result is a dazzling mix of old and new material (well it is all old at this stage considering the age of the album) which gives Roedelius’ talent the spotlight it deserves.
Recorded live as a duet between turntables and keyboards (with editing and overdubbing bass added later), the main track here is a slow, dramatic piece, with the flip side conjuring the best moments of electronic dub.
Following up their four track debut (originally titled 4), here are two additional tracks from the former Clockcleaner vocalist's sideproject. Again, it is an exercise in unabashed goth revivalism, encapsulating the sensibilities of the genre without sounding like a tribute band or an overly derivative project. Here is simply two additional songs, following the mold set forth on the previous EP, of quality death rock with a modern influence.
While both of these artists have significant discographies in their various projects (Marcia Bassett is a member of Double Leopards and Hototogisu, while Jenny Gräf is half of Metalux), here in the context of a duo they've chosen to examine more varied and ambient sounds as opposed to the more noise and drone tinged works their other bands are known for.
As a follow-up to his last full-length solo album Northern, Deupree has once again captured the changes in seasons in an audio format. Rather than the vast expanse of ice and snow, Shoals is the sound of summer’s transition into fall, of weather-worn trees decaying and other vegetation making early preparation for the coming change.
This isn't the first collaboration between these two that serves as excellent hot weather listening. While a lot of Andrew Chalk's recordings can seem dark and cold, this short release is serene in a very warm and comforting, almost blindingly bright way.