- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
Austere is the word that immediately comes to mind whenlistening to these ten very sleepy, very subdued songs. Mildly jazzykeys, guitar, bass, strings and winds just barely blanket the spaces inand around Burello's unassuming, almost spoken word vocals (all inEnglish, best I can tell). It's all very casual, very quiet, very slow,very relaxed and, in some way I can't quite adequately explain, veryFrench. And 36 and 1/2 minutes later it's time for bed. There's not toomuch in the way of memorable melodies or lyrics really, just brieflyused or underdeveloped phrases. They're all pretty but too often theycome and go with frustrating ease, such as the way "An Itch" begins tobuild a promising groove then aborts it less than a minute later or thegorgeous piano refrain of "The Whimps" is best used in conclusion. Ohwell. C'est la Vie!
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- Nate Smith
- Albums and Singles
This secondalbum by Eric Melzer on Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric's Plastiq Musiqlabel (home also to Soviet and Travelogue) embraces every tired andworn-out element of electro and new wave. The vocals are vocoded onevery single track, except for the self-titled intro, in which analogbleeps and tones swirl around a monologue depicting Norway Squared as afuturistic plastics factory. "The future is closer than we think, andNorway Squared is there to lead the way." That is, if leading the waytowards the future is programming uninteresting drumbeats and blandsynth melodies. The vocals and lyrics seem intentionally jokey, butjust because something is slightly ironic doesn't excuse its badness:"My synthesizer talks to me, my synthesizer told me to free, then itsaid 'you can't synthesize love'" Melzer lists over 60 of his 'recentinfluences,' including both "bad synth pop," which makes sense, and"anyone trying something new for a change," which doesn't. Noticeablyabsent from the list is the Cure, whose "Let's Go To Bed" Melzer bitesnearly note for note as the chorus of "It's Only Pop." Additionally,the opening of "From One Ballad To Another" sounds so much like CyndiLauper's "Time After Time" that I initially thought it was a sample.The lesson to learn from Norway Squared is that just because you ownmodular synths doesn't mean you can write a good song. It isuninspired, unoriginal synth drivel like this that gives the wholeelectro revival a bad name. -
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
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- Carsten S.
- Albums and Singles
It adds another shade of grey to the widefields of independent produced music - leaving no clue if the intensionis to connect these styles or if this is just the result due to theinfluences and likes of those involved. The accompanying info saysTausendschoen's music is rooted in the agreement that everything has anopposite which should be realized, and their music is "music for thecentre of your brain". Some sharp contrasts pointing out the oppositeswould have been welcome to keep the interested listener listening.However, late at night it is a lot more appealing than during daytimedue to the lengthy ambient structures and the general drifting mood.The nicely handpacked and limited bonus CDR (200 copies with additionalgraphic data 3" disc) shows the current state of this project. I guessthe main work are paintings, some of them can be seen atwww.t000schoen.de. If you feel like obtaining it
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
- Posset - Vernix
- Gommorrah - Darwin's Evil Lotion
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- Jonathan Dean
- Albums and Singles
Adult, Peaches,Fischerspooner and many other lesser known acts graced the stage, andafter the rubble cleared, we were left with only this compilation.The disc starts off on a killer note, with Fischerspooner's inspiredcover of Wire's "The 15th". It's hard not to love the infectious synthmelancholy of this gloomy pop song. The rest of the artists on the compyearn to reach the heights of this first track, with varying success.Memoryboy's "(There is No) Electricity" is a surprisingly powerfulpastiche of dark OMD-style electro. Morplay's "Check Your Pulse" is myfavorite track by far, a hilarious and ingenious Afrika Bambataa-styleelectro rap anthem. It sounds like the bastard child of Jonzun Crew andTechnotronic. Soviet turns in a very passable plagiarism of DephecheMode that shouldn't be enjoyable, but is. Robbie D. deserves somepraise for the Coil-style audio perversion of his track "Lotion." Therest of the artists engage in increasingly less and less interestingjuxtapositions of the same familiar clichés that make all EBM andDarkwave bands sound unlistenable and retarded. However, on the whole,this is an excellent compilation that successfully documents this scenein all of its inconsistent glory.
samples:
- Fischerspooner - The 15th
- Memoryboy - (There Is No) Electricity
- Morplay - Check Your Pulse
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
The end result comes out sounding like thesoundtrack to Gran Turismo mixed with cutscene music from NYPD Blue andthe keyboard demo on Casio keyboards, and set in the backdrop of"Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." That's right: pretty uninspired,mostly keyboard-created drivel. And that's not to say it's withouthope. There are tracks on here that are passable, and they mostlyinvolve lush keyboards with samples, and clever changes in the middle.Most of this music, however, is just modern electronic mastery appliedto classic Detroit techno—Dykehouse hails from Kalamazoo—which makes itsound incredibly obsolete as well as repetitive. And when somethingcomes across that is genuinely stunning ("Humid Easel Hockey," forinstance), it only lasts long enough to get you addicted to thatstuttering beat and pretty keyboards, then it fades away. EvenParadinas himself, whose involvement is often both a blessing and acurse, offers a non-commital description of dykehouse on the Planet Muwebsite ("it was pretty good" and "so it's like Moodyman meetsAutechre, however awful that sounds" are the high points). There isextreme potential here. The high points on this CD blow the rest of itout of the water. I found myself wishing that the rest of the CD hadthe same sound of the fantastic triple-shot of "Hockey," "The Patina ofAccumulation," and "Kalamazoo." Sadly, that's the best it offers. Thenit disintegrates under the weight of a limited palette and lack offresh ideas. I'd like to hear more, perhaps downloading the MP3 albumhe has on the Planet Mu website. But this release left me as uninspiredas it sounds like Mike was making it.
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- Graeme Rowland
- Albums and Singles
samples:
- Boredoms - Super Now
- Satan's Tornado - Amalgamated Computer Experience
- Unwound - Behold the Salt
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
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- Carsten S.
- Albums and Singles
Loads of track titles (i.e. "Fiat," "Microsound and glitch & cutscan only lick my mafia ass," "She Male 808") and the design show asense of humour which can't be wrong. It will be interesting to watchand listen to his further progressions. -
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
This release is many things: the soundtrack to MarkBorthwick's visually stunning art and photography, originally composedfor an exhibition at the Swiss Institute in New York in 1999; a bizarresound collage made up of acoustic guitar, spoken word, and electronics,all cut up for your pleasure/annoyance; an inspiration to Kim Gordon ofSonic Youth, which could be good or bad, depending how you look at it(a line from this release contains the words "a thousand leaves," whichis reportedly where the Sonic Youth album of the same name received itsmoniker); confusing and stunning at the same time. I listened to all 38minutes and 58 seconds in one listen, and I must say I wasimpressed/confused/stunned/annoyed/fascinated/dismayed. To tell thetruth I don't really quite know how to feel after the experience. It iscertainly an interesting listen, though, I feel, lacking without thevisual component. Although the packaging is well done and contains thecomplete text for the album with two Borthwick-taken photographsrandomly selected from four total, they are a poor substitute for thework that I feel this was inspired by or helped inspire. I wasreminded, strangely enough, of Tortoise's "Djed," and how the firsttime I listened to it I felt similar to how I felt about this project,a collaboration between Borthwick and TREVOR/hollAnd. So I listened toit again. And again. After several listens, I like it more, though I amjust as confused. And perhaps I should be. It's a lot to swallow, and Ifeel I may never fully understand it. But I dare you to try, and I hopeyou can. I just wish I could see the whole piece as it is intended tobe viewed. Then perhaps this release would have more meaning and wouldserver as a reminiscence for something incredibly moving. That's thesense I get from this. I'm missing too much. -
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