The second collaboration by Karkowski and Xopher Davidson (Antimatter)is a masterful work that rewards any patient listener with slowlyunfolding layers of analog hum and buzz. The CD consists of one 45minute piece, and this format suits the work well, as this kind ofpiece needs to develop slowly over a long period of time. The first 13minutes are calm, and consist of low end rumbling and quiethigh-pitched tones.
This album is aptly titled, as the 17 tracks it contains sound neitherhi nor lo fi. Stephen Wilkinson's debut release as Bibio is made up ofa mixture of muffled field recordings, well-recorded live guitarplaying, and ambient drones. Although individually these elements aresuccessfully executed, the finished product could have been more fullyrealized.
Around the time of Hood's Rustic Houses, Forlorn ValleysLP and their "Filmed Initiative" single, the band evolved from writingshort and brilliant pastoral odes into writing longer and digressiveelegies. Effectively, Hood changed from late afternoon ramblersmarching from pub to pub into long trail through-hikers. There is morejazz than noise in their songs these days.
The idea of a hyper-quartet feasting on the remains of dead metalguitars, hyperventilating percussion, and over-romanticized melodiesmight, at first, sound like a fun trip through nausea. Due to a lack ofvision, however, the EP these four Texans have crafted becomes too dullafter its first half has expired to even be considered satisfyinglydizzying. Four tracks full of spinning drum sticks and convulsingguitar strings amount to a whole lot of yawning when they all beginexactly the same.
Divided By Lightning is what happens when a willowy, sexuallyindeterminate club kid named Philip (who, like allclub kids, lists his occupation variously as model, artistand entertainer) decides to record an album.
Throughout 2004, the typically prolific Richard H. Kirk dug deep into his vault, releasing several discs and twelve inches of previously unavailable solo material. Still, after 2003's politically charged albums The War Against Terrorism and The Bush Doctrine, likeminded fans seemed eager for more new work amidst the increasingly bloody Iraq quagmire and the rhetoric-heavy U.S. presidential election campaigns.
The most important and pleasing aspect of Andrew Liles' latestfull-length is that it doesn't depend on any one formula, nor does itever venture into the realm of total and complete chaotic madness. Attimes the music is wonderfully melodic, featuring ballroom-like musiccirca 1930s or 1940s and, at other times, it is an admixture blossomingwith strange digital reverberations and analogue distortion.
The aural assault unleashed on Cosmic Trigger/2AM Visitis nothing short of a head cleansing catharsis of the best kind.Japan's Kohei-chang (AKA Filthy Dabo) uses homemade electronics andscrap metal to assault the senses on his third full length release.
Eyvind Kang is the avant-garde violinist whose work can be heard onalbums by a multitude of artists including Secret Chiefs 3, John Zorn,Bill Frisell, Beck, Marc Ribot and Arto Lindsay. He has also released ahandful of solo albums that are each more impressive than the next,culminating in last year's majestic Virginal Co-ordinates.
Early Day Miners have this odd quality of meticulously recalling a veryspecific mid-90s, Midwestern emo/indie sound, though slowing it to anear halt. It's as though the Miners spelunked their way to somefossilized sound from the Polyvinyl/Tree/Caulfield label nexus of 1996and successfully unearthed it, thawed it, and unleashed it, albeit at aslower tempo (perhaps the lethargy can be attributed to a neardecade-long hibernation).