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"Our Noise"? Anything but. From the opening notes of this release, Iwas sold. This is the debut full length from Hermann and Kleine,recorded in their bedrooms in Berlin. This is really un-German soundingelectronic music, created with laptops and samples, and named"plinkerpop" as a genre, I'm told. True, it does have its moments ofpop splendor, but I don't remember enjoying an electronic record thismuch since Four Tet's "Pause". It's not as boring as Kleine's work onhis own tends to be these days, that's for sure. The beats are meaty inareas, simple in others, and the keyboards and samples laid on top ofthem are unobtrusive, often engrossing, and totally fresh. Each trackstands on its own, and has a life of its own, even though they may havesimilar structures or sound effects. The album opener, 'Drop', is aperfect indicator of what the record is going to be about. A simplebeat starts the track, then the bassline joins, and then distortedguitar. Before you know it, you're completely lost in a trance, movingalong to the music like you don't know what's hit you. And it neverstops or disappoints. The full beat eventually drops in on 'Drop',paving the way for the harder beats you'll hear on later tracks, butfirmly engrained in the groove of the moment. 'Her Tune' starts outsimilarly deceptive, with simple keyboards, until the big beat joinsin. It's all very impressive and easy to listen to for a variety ofactivities. Elsewhere, shuffling beats and big loud rock guitars areused to get the point across, or, as on 'Shuttle', a voice is heard onoccasion, although extremely processed and edited. When it was allover, I started it up to listen to it a second time. A great firstfull-length release from this unlikely duo.
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This four-track EP, the third release from Scott Herren on the Warp label under his Prefuse 73 alias, makes for a broad yet fleeting assortment of instrumental HipHop inspired music. The absence of vocalists and/or MCs has the listener focused on the behind the scenes make-up of some great compositions. Not to say that the right vocalists and/or MCs wouldn't enhance things, as evident on 2001's "Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives."Warp
The opening track "Desks.Pencils.Bottles" names the elements used to provide the busy melodic percussion and distant drones, anchored with a synth-heavy bassline and a shuffle rhythm (coupled with a human beatbox) which skips the tune along perfectly. "When Irony Wears Thin" kicks it with the big band-esque shots of a reworked horn section over Moogish sounds and the bells, bips and bleeps of a gear-shifting rhythm track. "It Never Entered" lays down an "old school" styled funk groove as the base for the calm and collected sampled progressions of what sounds like a choir, eventually going to a serene half-time feel. "Love You Bring" closes off the disc with a sampled string section, acoustic guitar, droning keyboards and some pleasant female vocal clippings over a groove with a kick drum that'll get you right in the chest. Being called a collection, one may expect a lot more than four tracks over a ten year period. This may be that Mr. Herren has been a busy guy with his other projects (Savath+Savalas, Eastern Developments label) which differ from Prefuse to accumulate a lot of extra material. Here's hoping for another full lengther.
 
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To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider is Mapstation, the solo project inwhich the bassist focuses more on the layering of electro sounds andtextures. At times minimalist in approach, this third disc continues inthe direction of an interesting compositional style. The introductionof what at first appears as simple sounding ideas are subtly built uponusing various rhythms, synth patches and digital found sounds untilthey have formed a beautiful soundscape. Each of the disc's eleventracks has a unique development and outcome. "Two Landscapes" openswith deep and lilting synth tones which act as a percussive elementwhile various patches drift in and out stating a general melody andmotif. "More People Than Two" is comprised of a lullaby-soundingrepetitive keyboard with a bassline that weaves nicely into the mix ofethereal chords and distant pulses. Reggae singer Ras Donovan guests onthe tracks "New Direction" (released as a 12") and "Wake Up," whichcould be seen as minimalist dub, maintaining the rhythmic keyboard ofthe style. This is definitely one for the headphones.
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Theelectro of Ersatz Audio's 'Misery Loves Company' comp is pretty damnthin. I don't really understand why, because all these artists (Adult.,G.D.Luxxe, Solvent, Gold Chains, etc) should be interested in qualityof sound, since they are, essentially, electronic musicians. But thebeats on this CD are SCRAWNY, and I don't know if it's the minimalaspect of these tracks (most songs are just a drum machine and one ortwo synth lines, with vox), or if Ersatz needs to start getting theirCDs mastered somewhere else (the Adult. full-length has a similar lackof punch). Or perhaps my ear is getting a little too picky. In anycase, sound quality aside, this compilation is fairly enjoyable butsomewhat forgettable. There's nothing groundbreaking going on here, but'Misery Loves Company' has done a pretty good job of compiling artistsfrom America and Europe whose approach to their drum machines andsequencers are roughly on the same wavelength: simpleretro-dance-electro, with a big nod to the Detroit sound (and a smallnod to Miami) and a slightly ironic presense. The obvious names standout with some of the best tracks (DMX Krew's "Touch Me" and Lowfish'sIDM-electro instrumental "Dead House"), but there are some intriguingnew names here, including Detroit's Tamion 12 Inch, whose "Thin BoysMurdered" straddles the line between being really irritating andstrangely charming. Other bigger names fail to deliver quality tracks,most notably Solvent & Skanfrom's collaboration "Expect Delays" andGold Chains "Could Care Less," which is the purported inspiration forthis disc. At its worst, this comp is a kind of redundant after awhile, as every song sounds pretty much the same. But most of thismusic doesn't take itself too seriously, thankfully, and overall it'spretty non-intrusive. I'd probably put it on at a party. Or maybe playit really loud while taking a nap.
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I really do sincerely hate name-dropping in music reviews, however,it's impossible to get around this one, like a dead animal on thesidewalk you simply can't ignore and have to step over. To theircredit, this Estonian group has come closer than anyone in making analbum sound just like 1990's 'Loveless' by My Bloody Valentine fortheir second full-lengther, and it's hardly surprising that the labelto release this mentions Slowdive in over half of their band's webpages on their site. It's so strikingly similar from the pretty fuzz,through the male and female soft vocals, down to the usage of a burieddrum machine on the final cuts. Give them a break, however, as eachmember was only 9 years old in 1990, therefore the chances of them everseeing a band live who has had such an apparently profound influence onthem are quite slim. The band sounds amazingly direct and sincere,however, and the tunes are indeed catchy and full of proverbialdistorted guitar, in a mesmerising fuzz like the glaze covering youreyes on a hot, cloudy, yet rainless day. Much like a number of releaseson Claire, songs can easily be picked apart and stand strong on theirown amidst an ocean of variety but a collection of ten of these in arow with so much in common can be only be, at worst, slightlycumbersome to wade through.
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The "Plays" project came out over the course of 2001 on Bottrop-Boy(two 7" singles) and Staubgold (three mini-LPs). Each release in theseries consisted of two tracks. This CD is a handy way to get them allat once, and perhaps to understand the project more coherently. Whilethere's little information in the insert for those of us who can't readGerman, it's not hard to guess, given Ehlers's past form—particularlyhis membership of the defunct high-concept Mille Plateaux actAutopoieses—that there'll be some thinking behind it.The Staubgold site helpfully offers this quotation from Ehlers: "The'Plays' series deals with 'reference' ... Everyone is sampling;sampling is the figure of historic devices in digital music. My idea isnot to sample, but to refer to historic places and figures." And so herefers not only to musicians (Albert Ayler, Cornelius Cardew, andRobert Johnson) but to actor and director John Cassavetes, and theenigmatic Hubert Fichte, who is variously documented on the web as aqueer theorist, an anthropologist, and a beat poet.
These referential intentions work well for the most part, reversing theusual process of listening to music based on sampled material: insteadof noticing or just assuming I'm hearing "quotations" from other music,I've tried to decode it using my knowledge—however pitiful at times—ofits subject.
Thankfully, though it may enrich it, knowledge of the five subjects'biographies is not essential to appreciating the music. "PlaysCornelius Cardew", one of the 7"s, and "Plays John Cassavetes", one ofthe mini-LPs, are basically drone and loop-based, using organs andviolins—sometimes as walls of sound, others more sparsely. Ehlers takesa much more interesting approach on the "Plays Albert Ayler" and "PlaysHubert Fichte" mini-LPs, confidently subjecting raw recordings to hisdigital knife. These are the must-listen highlights of the CD. "PlaysHubert Fichte" puts lazily picked guitar from Joseph Suchy in thebackground of a night chorus of buzzing and chirping modifications,like improvisation overheard on a hot evening. The meticulouslyarranged "Plays Albert Ayler" uses similar processing techniques but,being based on Anka Hirsch's cello and other orchestralinstrumentation, is more austere and graceful. You may have heard thissort of thing before, but here it's done with a taste and judgmentthat's far from common.
The CD closes with the "Plays Robert Johnson" 7", one side processedguitar fumbling, and the other a micro-house funk-out that's funny butdefinitely out of character with the rest of the series. Nonetheless,it adds to the diversity of this occasionally inspired collection,which confirms Ehlers as one of the best musicians working at thetheory-heavy end of the post-digital scene.
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After 1997's unimaginatively entitled third album, Download planned onreleasing two EPs ('Moth' and 'Resilient' if memory serves) that nevercame to be. More than likely some if not all of the material for thosehas resurfaced here, along with 'Effector' outtakes, on the thirdinstallment of the "From the Vault" series. From the get go I'mimpressed as these are finished tracks on par with or better than thosethat made the official releases, unlike the lifeless doodlings of thefirst Vault disc "Inception". "Sticky Glandstin" has all theessentials: a jittery bass heavy beat, bizarre samples and sounds andan amniotic atmosphere smeared across the stereo field. The next track"Dakota" is the first jaw dropper when it shifts gears and glides intoan elegant synthetic wash. Rhythmically "The Itch of Trepanning"swaggers and "Manmade" assaults while "Nor" caresses (it too dissolvinginto a howl enhanced ambient bliss midway through). "Walking, Talking"also beats you pleasantly senseless with an intricate mesh of metallicpercussion and electronic squelches over a groovy bass lead. "D.O.G."and "P.U.P." reference Key's longtime feline companions to which this45 minute collection is dedicated. With that in mind both take on asomewhat somber but thankful air, the rhythms tamed down some to focusmore on melodic feel. If you're remotely a fan of post-'The Eyes ofStanley Pain' Download, 'III Steps Forward' is very worth your while.
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Prior to one hundred and forty-some (and counting) releases asMuslimgauze, Bryn Jones was known as E.g Oblique Graph. This limitededition set of 201 collects all of the tracks from the very rarecassette and vinyl releases: 1982's 'Extended Play', 'Piano Room' and'Triptych' and 1983's 'Inhalt'. What's on these two black CD-Rs bearslittle to no resemblance to trademark Muslimgauze. It's rather sparseand primal electronic music with a DIY attitude typical of the late'70s and early '80s. Jones plunked about and droned on synths, mixed invarious tape recordings and some pseudo-beats and lets it all churnwithin effects. The more dark or abstract the more interesting: marredchoirs and speech, reversed and otherwise manipulated tapes, electricdischarges, sonar-like pings, seemingly random juxtapositions, etc."Human Rights" is probably the first track (in title, at least) toaddress a socio-political concern while the final (and my favorite)track of disc one, the 20 plus minute "Piano Room", seems to be thefirst to utilize a drum machine amongst its varied movements. Israel's1982 invasion of Lebanon brought about a paradigm shift in Jones'inspiration, as evidenced by the titles of the two tracks that made upthe "Inhalt" cassette: "Islamic Koran In Camera Dome" and "Rapid WhiteFlag In Snapshot Blur". The blood is beginning to boil in the former asan upfront rhythm dominates most of the nearly nine minutes. Soon afterthis began Muslimgauze. 'Completely Oblique' isn't all that excitingreally, more of a historical footnote for Muslimgauze collectors.Though I do have a soft spot for this sort of amateur music making,having done it myself for a few years, I don't even listen to my owntapes anymore. The liner notes make it pretty clear that Jones wasn'ttoo interested in revisiting this or other past work either. So whileI'm grateful for the chance to finally hear it, I also have to wonderif re-issuing it was the right thing to do.
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The music industry, like most industries built on commerce, tends tomove in cyclic patterns known to many as "trends." These "trends" aredisturbing only in the fact that they tend to rob the consumer of anyclear original thought. "Here, America! That other album by that otherband on that other label was good, huh? Well now, we, a completelydifferent label, bring you an artist that's pretty similar! What do youthink?" After the huge success of the Strokes and other bands with aretro-but-not-really sound, the race was on to find the next band withthe sound of yestermorrow. Here they are, from Sub Pop, Hot Hot Heat!After a single on Sub Pop and a whole album on Ohev, "Knock KnockKnock" is a five song EP to whet the listener's appetite for theeventual full-length on Sub Pop. And, yes, Hot Hot Heat have a soundthat is easily derivative, recalls other eras of musical, and stilltries to sound original and new. It doesn't. Their sound is supposedlysupposed to combine the best elements of the most popular music fromthe past three decades. And Hot Hot Heat does that pretty well.Unfortunately, it's not all that interesting to listen to. The firsttrack, 'Le Le Low', features a thumping bassline, Power Station-likedrums, and vocals that sound like the bastard child of Iggy Pop andDanny Elfman singing "where's all your passion gone?/where's all yourfashion gone?" Together, it all sounds like a new wave band that wokeup twenty years later to be produced by Bob Rock. And "Knock KnockKnock" never really does anything more than that. In this race to findthe next band that will bring relevance to past decades with music oftoday, Hot Hot Heat and Sub Pop are behind the leader by some distance,and it's unclear whether they'll be able to catch up.
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For years, singer/songwriter/New Yorker James Balyut has fronted thegroup Versus, cranking out a parade of critically-acclaimed rocking poprecords. With this self-titled long-paying debut album, Balyut hasstepped out, almost entirely alone, into the playing field of thisdecade, merging crafty tunemanship with a heap of drum machines,electronics, and a super clean production that's only ever slightlyrough around the edges. When it's good, it can get really, reallyawesome, with feverishly catchy tunes like "The Queen of Detroit," andthe slow but undeniably forceful, "The Declaration of Independence,"and somewhat sexily messy bursts in "All I Have to Do is Make You."Balyut's acoustic fingerpicking skills are highlighted in numeroussongs, including "The Industrial Revolution," a tune to bring a smileto nearly any David Grubbs fan with a vocal style that has most likelygiven people like Sam Prekop and Marcus Acher more confidence to singwith their timid voices. However, some of the slower moments, like thealbum's opening and the cringeful repetition of "Yo Yo Yo," can be moreembarassing than listening to Pet Shop Boys at loud volumes in public.When a four-piece group is assembled for live shows, the format istranslated almost entirely over to standard rock instrumentation, andthere's never a weak moment. Hopefully with future records, Balyut willbe less wary of letting his teeth show, but for now, this rather quietand laid-back record is more of a bold statement and could easily bodewell with fans of the more electronic side of Clinic who ache for a lotmore musical proficiency and no irony.
For years, singer/songwriter/New Yorker James Balyut has fronted thegroup Versus, cranking out a parade of critically-acclaimed rocking poprecords. With this self-titled long-paying debut album, Balyut hasstepped out, almost entirely alone, into the playing field of thisdecade, merging crafty tunemanship with a heap of drum machines,electronics, and a super clean production that's only ever slightlyrough around the edges. When it's good, it can get really, reallyawesome, with feverishly catchy tunes like "The Queen of Detroit," andthe slow but undeniably forceful, "The Declaration of Independence,"and somewhat sexily messy bursts in "All I Have to Do is Make You."Balyut's acoustic fingerpicking skills are highlighted in numeroussongs, including "The Industrial Revolution," a tune to bring a smileto nearly any David Grubbs fan with a vocal style that has most likelygiven people like Sam Prekop and Marcus Acher more confidence to singwith their timid voices. However, some of the slower moments, like thealbum's opening and the cringeful repetition of "Yo Yo Yo," can be moreembarassing than listening to Pet Shop Boys at loud volumes in public.When a four-piece group is assembled for live shows, the format istranslated almost entirely over to standard rock instrumentation, andthere's never a weak moment. Hopefully with future records, Balyut willbe less wary of letting his teeth show, but for now, this rather quietand laid-back record is more of a bold statement and could easily bodewell with fans of the more electronic side of Clinic who ache for a lotmore musical proficiency and no irony.
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Whilst Manchester's regular quiet improv and odd experimental night ofrumbunctious shenanigans has gone into hibernation, its instigatorDaniel Weaver (Unplugboy) keeps the soundwaves coming with a typicallycuriously presented double 3" CD. About a year back, Daniel took hiscello input laptop on a trip around various British arthouses anddives, accompanying the drones, judders and high squeals of Japanesemaestro of the no-input mixing desk, Toshimaru Nakamura. He's editeddown his performances to one of these little CDs, and all his duetswith Toshimaru Nakamura to the other one. By the time they reachedManchester, Daniel had dislodged the bridge from his cello and clippedcrocodile clips all over the strings. The two of them were makingalmost no sound at all, and such was their pursual of minimal quietude,that it seemed Toshi's shadow on the wall might've become audible. Itseems that some of the events in other cities rendered up some slightlynoisier material, judging by these two little discs snuggled in theirgrey latex-foam wallet. The Unplugboy disc opens with sounds thatresemble exerted panting breath, and soon a rhythmic door hinge squeakstarts up. Slowly groans and drones of a more recognisably cellicnature arch around. Despite moves towards atonal abstraction, therealways seems to be a rhythmic undertow, even if it's sometimes leftunstated. Usually there's some kinda oddlooping goin' on. Cauldronsbubble and mystic organic sci-fi machines sing their breakingglitch-song. Perhaps Unplugboy's closest companion in laptop / stringinterface invention would be Kaffe Mathews, with whom he's performed inthe past. Both have an interest in seeing just how far they can pushtheir mutant stringsounds without having to resort to high volumeonslaughts. Second track "Newcastle" slowly builds an eerie feel of anasthmatic witches coven summoning down elementals in an operatingtheatre. The "Chinese" helping of Unplugboy's collaboration withToshimaru Nakamura is marked by much denser blocks of sound and highfeedback squeals, under which the cellaptop makes little rumbles like atoy car in trouble. Imagine a life support machine for a being thatbreathes white noise and sine waves, exhaling them as regular sfericpatterns that soon dissolve. The longest portion is "Indian" and openswith squeaker mousey jangles over mindfuck midrange drone-nasties. Thisis where they reach meltdown and the mice run screaming in circles fromthe mouse organ as it catches fire. The emergency klaxons peal thenbreakdown as the monitors smoke. Finally fractured dyslexic morse codeblips into oblivion. The three inch CD format is perhaps in generalunderused and works very well here, leaving me wanting to hear more,and unfortunately the short sound files do a disservice to evolvingsoundscapes that should be heard in their entirety.
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