Yoshihiro Hanno has played jazz and drum'n'bass and composedsoundtracks for Chinese films but here he plays his experimentalglitchery hand. He originally released this material as two EP's on hisCirque label. "April" comprised his own compositions, and "Remixes"compiled other artists' mutations of those tracks. Sub Rosa havecombined the original "April" with three of the remixes, presumably themost sympathetic. Combining the two releases might seem an odd idea,but it works really well.The opening 'On/Off' rips some robotic syllables from what sounds likea hacked speak'n'spell toy then sends fractured piano notes ripplingprettily from speaker to speaker. 'Lab Suite' glitches a choir to soundlike an updated homage to early Steve Reich or Philip Glass repetitionmusic. Hanno stitches together brief looping fragments to form a brightmosaic of sound that will probably either entrance or irritate. Whilstthe first couple of tracks seem very serious, 'Compass' deploys similartactics to comedic effect. By this point things begin to get a bitformulaic so it's fortunate that Oval steps in with a magnificentlyfull bodied remix that has an overlapping density lacking in Hanno'srelatively linear originals. 'Trapezoid' is more like the Oval mix thanthe first three Hanno tracks, so was presumably the primary track onwhich Markus Popp based his remix, but whilst Hanno seems to stitchglitch horizontally, Oval piles on vertical strata. 'Trapezoid'squelches and whines more than Hanno's other tracks and latterly tailsoff into a soundcard swamp. Hidenobu Ito, whose eclectic 'Bedroom in aCage' CD was quite good fun, remixes 'Lab Suite' adding some acousticguitar and vibraphones and jingling bells to the finely stutteringvoices. Then he begins 'Aaahing' over the top and a second guitar picksa melody out as shakers shuffle. Like Oval, his slowly unfolding extralayers and melodic colouration highlight the minimal aspect of Hanno'ssoundworld. The reason to get this is Chistophe Charles' excellent epic'Verena/On Canvas' remix which opens up a mysterious electroacousticportal through which drones support vague memory noise; distant voiceslaughing, a train passing, a bicycle bell ringing, that perkyspeak'n'spell... eventually all is stripped of association and reducedto the processed munching and hissing of the computer. Then all thesounds rush back in, faster and desperate. Latterly eerie droneambience underpins shards of Hanno's sounds fading in an out, bothprocessed and untouched, until 14 minutes in when the glitch chorussings for its third meal. The final track, 'A Short Break' is actuallyHanno's longest original, and is quite different to the others. Anacoustic guitar picks out slow notes in the foreground, and more guitarmelody and string drone settles in beautifully. It sounds like it wasquite likely stitched together in a computer, and the guitars playaround each other in a way quite unlike any other I've heard, perhapsbecause he's using long loops that are going out of synch with eachother. Halfway through piano fills and rapid glitch drop in. Thisdefinitely seems the most interesting of Hanno's tracks and is a lovelyway to drift to the end of the album.
samples:
- Lab Suite (Hidenobu Ito)
- April (Oval)
- A Short Break (Yoshihiro Hanno)
Blimp are a four piece from Poland that practically hide guitar, bassand drums within analogue synths, loops, samples, effects and rhythmprogramming. The 40 minutes of music here is instrumental (save for amuddled recitation of a James Joyce poem in one track) with welltempered, basic bass/beats and very thick layers of back and foregroundtexture and micro mechanical sounds. It's more of a mellow electronicgroove thing than a post rock groove thing, though it's really bothwith a bit of spacey dub and krautrock mixed in, often reminding me ofMouse on Mars and the solo work of Thomas Fehlmann of The Orb. "17"offers up the most prominent bass guitar based groove, almost to thepoint of Jah Wobble prominence. Everything is perfectly pleasant andcomes to an end far too quickly. My only other minor complaint - a fewunintentional clicks pop up here and there, which may be a problem withthe disc itself and not the music or mix.
Now is the time we go digging around some of the albums we neglected to talk about over the last twelve months. Adullt'sdebut full-lengher has placed this duo at the top of my list for mostthe overrated group of the year (sharing of course with White Stripesand The Strokes). I actually liked Le Car so I really, really wanted tolike Adult, but I'm left with a sour, sour taste in my mouth. If Ididn't like the 1980s analogue synth style of music they're attempting,I probably wouldn't still own my Gary Numan, OMD, Soft Cell or FadGadget records. If I was tired of the retro-analogue sound, I probablywould have no appreciation for Joy Electric, I Am Spoonbender, G.D.Luxxe, Ladytron, Fischerspooner, Gold Chains or a zillion others whorecently won analogue drum machines and synths on eBay auctions anddecided to form a band. Strip away the kitch and the irony from Adultand you're left with nothing but 14 very boring songs. The lyrics arefucking horrible, many repeated way beyond tolerable levels, whileuntrained monkeys very possibly could have programmed more interestingdrum machine patterns. At least other horrible groups like Freezepophave a certain charm about them which make them mildly tolerable. Naiveindie kids, however, claim Adult are "fun" but I actually find Chickson Speed and Peaches (ironically enough, based in Germany) hundreds oftimes more "fun" than a couple dull Americans acting out Germanprejudices popularized by Mike Meyers' "Sprockets" skits on SaturdayNight Live. Maybe it's a jaded view because the same people who hearof, buy and enjoy Adult are more than likely the same people whoprobably think Radiohead are "innovative," or Richard D. James is"original." There's much more entertaining, better crafted music we'vementioned all year long and you don't need to waste your money on thisshit.
Prior to Windor For the Derby's forthcoming fourth album, Aestheticshave released this five-track remix EP. It's always strange to hear theremixes before the originals, but in this case, Windsor's previousunadulterated material — mostly mellow guitar-based tunes — struck meas rather bland. So I hoped that the remixers would make a little moreout of it. Carnival Wave certainly do, enveloping "The EmotionalRescue" in atmospheric swirls and some (presumably added) femalevocals. Pulseprogramming give "I Change.C?" a nice electro-dubtreatment while I-Sound go a little too over the top with gritty beatsand electronic blips in "Ice Age Blues". Calla, who share a member withWindsor, bring cymbal heavy rhythms, big bass booms, clean guitar loopsand shiny ambiance to "Awkwardness". And finally, Windsor themselvesjoin in the fun with a heavily effected "Now I Know the Sea" completewith computerized vocals. Carnival Wave and Calla tie for the blueribbon here. I wonder, will next year's "The Emotional Rescue" LPbetter these? I'll take a chance on it.
At the front of this Montreal-based collective (pronounced "hursh-tah") is Mike Moya, founding memeber of godspeed, Molasses, and Set Fire to Flames. Other members of the group include godspeed/etc. members Bruce and Norsola as well as Molasses members Fluffy Erskine and Scott Chernoff. The 55+ minute collection of 13 tracks would more likely find better appreciation among Nick Cave, Boxhead Ensemble, Thalia Zedek and Leonard Cohen fans who appreciate a good score to a murder scene rather than godspeed fans seeking the next rock and roll messiah.
Finally hereÍs the first solo outing of the On-U Sound mastermind andmixer supremo himself.I paid a horrible amount to purchase a copy of this single, limited to3000, which come in a dancehall-style plain standard soft-sleeve. 
'Afrocentris' is different from other Sandoz LPs, especially thereggae-based last release 'Chant to Jah' It does have however,similarities with his other Sandoz work too.
So you've wrapped up all the crappy mobile phones and put them underthe tree. They all start ringing before Christmas, so everyone knowswhat their presents are. Worse than that, they all play bleeperversions of Eminem and Goons & Poseurs wack. What you need: CD ofringtones to program your chip! Pre-empting the advent of programmablemobile phones, Touch asked lots of artists to make their own idealringtones. There are as many tracks as a CD can deal with encoded here(99) and a wide variation of noises that'll get you odd looks whenRobert Hampson calls to ask in cryptic drone cyphers, "Where the fuckare you?" 
Whether you love Rephlex or hate it (or perhaps even fall somewhere inbetween), you can't deny that the label has progressed nicely from it'sbirth a decade ago — as a home for the acid techno experimentations ofRichard D. James (and soundalikes) — to become one of the more eclecticimprints around. This is proven quite nicely by this simultaneous pairof releases from Cylob that have absolutely nothing in common save theartist responsible.
As for Mood Bells, it's something else entirely. Inspired by a two weekvisit to Japan, Cylob's Chris Jeffs describes the work as "Japanesetraditional music that doesn't exist". As the title suggests, it is amellow and relaxing work composed almost entirely of bell and gongsounds with very little in the way of electronic manipulation orprocessing. A beautiful and exotic work that caps a year of remarkablevariety from the Rephlex contingent.
First of all, the title for this disc is misleading; it implies thatthis is a trio recording by everywhere-at-once guitarist O'Rourke andtwo members of the UK's (perhaps the world's) greatest improvisingensembles, Eddie Prevost from AMM and Michael Prime from Morphogenesis.What it actually is is one recording of a trio performance by the threeaformentioned folks, and one quartet performance by O'Rourke, Prime,Andy Hammond (guitar) and Adam Bohman (also from Morphogenesis). HavingPrevost's name in the title doesn't really make sense, as O'Rourke andPrime are the only constants on the two tracks. 
Though the American Analog Set has only been around since 1996, theyhave managed to release a steady flow of albums and singles that,though not incredibly revolutionary or ground-breaking, are gorgeous,hypnotic, and beautifully melodic. "Through the 90s: singles andunreleased" makes an attempt at gathering their best singles andb-sides together on one album while adding unreleased treats and livecuts for long-time fans. If you're not familiar with AmAnSet's sound,try imagining Stereolab and "Another Green World" era Brian Eno gettingtogether and making the most of their guitar, bass, keyboard, anddrum-set. Though certain tracks like "living room incidental #2 / thecorduroy kid" and "it's all about us" feature reversed tape effects andvibraphone parts, the band's best qualities lie mainly in thecohesiveness of the member's sharp playing skills and excellentproduction values. While "Magnificent seventies" and "on my way"showcase just how catchy this band's composistions can be, unreleasedcuts like "don't wake me (meow mix)" and "where did you come from(reprise)" seem unncessary and can spoil the flow of the album. Thelast two tracks are live performances of some AmAnSet's best songs andthese alone are worth the $11.99 price tag. This may not be the bestintroduction to AmAnSet ("From Our Living Room To Yours" fits thatbill), this is a great collection of tunes from a great band withplenty of new material to satisfy any long-time fan.
It's 1983, and Yazoo (or Yaz if you live in North America) has split up. Alison Moyet just didn't want to sing with peppy, happy, robotic synth-pop behind her any more and wanted to pursue a more "soul" avenue. A saddened Vincent Clarke is left holding the songs without a singer, tries out Paul Quinn and Fergal Sharkey but nothing seems right. Defeated, Clarke destroys all recordings and gives up, of course, until he is put in touch with his inner homosexual and launches Erasure. Sadly enough, all recordings in between the biggest productive times are gone, lost, destroyed, never to be seen again. Clarke never looks back.
A thoroughly satisfying mini-album of groovy beats, originally intendedas soundtracks for dance performances, theater and video installations.A steady dub-like bass guides all five of these mellow, mid-tempotunes, with spare keyboard accompaniment and airy, repetitive melodies.Some tunes remind me of Fax-era Tetsu Inoue or Atom Heart, but "Musicto Watch" stands on its own. The compositions are full of rich soundelements which hold up under intent listening (especially the basssounds, which are just great) and also unobtrusive enough to beinnocuous background noise. It makes me wonder about the nature of thevisual element that the songs were created to supplement. Perhaps avideo component on the CD would have been a nice addition.
Seth Nehil is a late twenty something artist, now based in Portland,who has worked in sound since 1990 by himself and with electroacoustictrio Alial Straa. "Uva" (a small fruit such as a grape) is a single 20minute found sound oriented track on a 3" CD from Japan's 20 Citylabel. The piece begins with a rolling mass of hollow objects andshimmering glass interjected with electronic currents. But by the 6thminute, the noisy tide recedes leaving just the gentle twinkles tocarry on. These very, very gradually fade away, but not completely,over an extremely calming stretch of 10 minutes. It reminds me of windchimes that, no matter how calm the day, refuse to stop singing. In thefinal minutes bits and pieces of ceramic clutter re-emerge amidst very,very subtle strains of wind and water. Did Nehil record or imitate whatI think I'm hearing? Does it matter? Though the connection betweentitle and work is lost on me, the piece (which is perfectly suited forthe 3" format and bedtime) is a stunning example of what can be donewith found sound. Another winner from 20 City.
As this year draws to a close, I thought I'd review a great release ortwo from last year that I felt got no respect whatsoever. The first isthis release by the delgados, a band whose members also run the famedChemikal Underground label based in Glasgow Scotland — present orone-time home to Mogwai, Arab Strap, Aereogramme, and bis. Previousreleases by the band showed a strong sense of melody and fantasticinterplay between guitarists/vocalists Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock."The Great Eastern" was recorded by the band in Glasgow, but when timecame to mix the record, they travelled to rural New York to work withfamed producer and member of Mercury Rev Dave Fridmann (who alsoproduced the last two Mogwai full-lengths — apparently the lads saidgood things about Mr. Fridmann). The results are simply stunning.Fridmann brings out the true promise of this band, and puts it ondisplay for all to cherish. From the opening track, which sounds likethe sound Radiohead was trying for but never quite captured on "Kid A,"to "Accused of Stealing," which Pollock OWNS, the delgados shine likenever before. I swear anything Fridmann touches turns to gold. His loveof vocal effects and creative editing makes each song sound like awhole new delgados, and good for them. While their last two records wonthem critical acclaim, it seemed possible that this record would winover the audiences like never before. Sadly, this didn't happen, butmore critics responded, naming "The Great Eastern" as one of theirfavorite albums of 2000. The band are in the studio currently, workingon a new album that Fridmann will also produce for release in early2002. Expect greatness. Until then, try out the sound samples and givethis band a chance.
Last week, GVSB. This week, their side project New Wet Kojak. Johnny Temple and Scott McCloud of GVSB record with other local musicians in their hometown of Washington, DC, to create music very much in the GVSB vain, but with horns and a broader, sexier sound. Ever-present, though, is the appealing yet odd voice of McCloud, who here utters phrases that many might see as just plain incoherent. But it all works, and the resulting sound is hard to ignore.
Do yourself a favour and get this one... 
I became rather excited once I figured out, via some online research, that this is the soundtrack for a film by Iceland's Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. Some of Fridriksson's other films, such as Children of Nature and Angels of the Universe, featured impressive soundtracks that included Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Sigur Rós. Too bad they're not on this one.
Solid State is, without a doubt, the best IDM album released in 2001.Now, them's fightin' words, I know - but let us consider thecontenders. Brothomstates' "Claro" was an excerise in derivativenesswhich went absolutely nowhere. "Drukqs"? No, thank you, 1996 was fiveyears ago. "Confield"? Very interesting and pushing experimentalboundaries, but not something you listen to often. "Double Figure"?Now, there's a contender, but.. anyway, Solid State rules. The twoDutch brothers known as Funckarma have singlehandedly tapped into thatamazing Tri Repetae-style of IDM, added some real instruments, and madean album that sounds brand new while feeling delightfully familiar.What I'm trying to say is that Solid State is clearly influenced by themasters, Autechre - but never so much that it sounds like a ripoff orsomething unoriginal (*cough* Funkstorung). What really sets it apart,though, is the beautiful (and real) instrumentation - upright bass in"Lolala," sighing violins in "Bace"... lush sounds that give it anorganic edge the likes of which you only find in something like, say,Plaid's latest album. But electronic-noodling fans, fear not, sinceSolid State delivers those goods too: just listen to "Nuncas" and feelthe way the synth squiggles between your ears.... it's classic. Trulyclassic. These guys clearly aren't getting the recognition they deserve.
