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The next wave of laptop musicians appear to be providing a little more of the human element in their work by taking their faces from the blue glow of their displays and putting them in front of a microphone. Not only does this literally breathe new life into the genre, but also makes for the possibility of more interesting live performances. As Clue to Kalo, Australian laptop artist/producer Mark Mitchell blends his vocal and other musical abilities with his programming skills to give an hour's worth of complex electronic-pop compositions over the ten tracks on Come Here When You Sleepwalk.
A growing number of new bands are embracing the characteristics and conventions of heavy metal in their quest for tense, dramatic post-rock instrumentalism. Pelican are a new instrumental group from Chicago, and this untitled EP on Hydra Head is their first release. The EP is quite promising, filled to the brim with big, crunchy heroic power chords and melodic riffs. The sound is not far from bands such as Explosions in the Sky or The Fucking Champs, but without all of the slow-burn atmospheric filler.
It has never been more clear that David Tibet lives in a completely idiosyncratic sphere of his own. Perhaps this is true for everyone, but Tibet's world seems particularly out of step with current trends in music, culture and thought. There is something terribly admirable and beguiling about that. Hypnagogue beautifully proves that Current 93 is continuing in its tangential orbit, and exists solely as the outlet for Tibet's poetic musings on Christ, cats, children, dreams, piety, horror, death, dread, decay and apocalypse. You're not going to find any concessions to glitch-pop or retro-electro here.
If a keyboard cowboy steals your voice it might just serve your server right for trying to read and burn the last of the Mohicans. With one foul swoop Colin Newman proclaims punk rock meaningless and declares the joy of his latest bastard 'heavy metal dancefloor' bad vibing it up like there's no tomorrow. Those four negative horsemen Wire celebrate the art of stopping, which is where it's at - addictive repetitive mega-riffing retooled on hardrive and nailed down fast in paranoiac fits.
SilberThe many styles of Jon DeRosa are on full display these days, with new albums from Pale Horse and Rider and this project being released so close to each other. Where DeRosa is getting a lot of press these days for PHaR, it is Aarktica that started his journey into somber melodies, though for his latest, it seems the more song-like structure of the former informs the latter. Pure Tone Audiometryrefers to a hearing test that DeRosa had when he lost the hearing in his right ear several years ago. It is also the most rock-oriented of DeRosa's releases. Where previous Aarktica recordings were primarily drone and buzz, and PHaR very acoustic and downbeat, this music is full-sounding, almost playful in places, and very mapped-out. Sounds appear and disappear, spliced in and out with the skill of a surgeon, and everything dances around your ears like it was born to be there. The chilling vocals on the opening track almost drown out the science film wild track, and altogether it sounds like a chorus of technology, humanity, and the otherworldly. Elsewhere, the electro-pop returns, with electric guitar, programmed beats, and the sullen but liquid voice of DeRosa gracing the other tones. Then, real drums snap into focus, and the sound of a full band, something unheard of Aarktica releases, fills the speakers and pulses with raw energy. The harmony chorus vocals all over the record breathe real life into this material, so much so that it alone almost eclipses all his other work. This is not to say that DeRosa has left behind his old devices, as"Snowstorm Ruins Birthday" and "Water Wakes Dead Cells" clearly display. He has, however, found a growth, a leap forward, that was not expected, but certainly most welcome.