The Answer Is In The Beat

El Fog: Reverberate Slowly (Moteer, 2007/reissued flau, 2012) + Masayoshi Fujita: Stories (flau, 2012)

September 6, 2013 at 10:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

A few years ago, I reviewed El Fog’s second album Rebuilding Vibes for Foxy Digitalis. This was a fantastic album of minimal glitch-dub, utilizing vibraphone as the primary instrument, and totally reconstructing the possibilities of what that instrument can create. Now flau has made the project’s original album available again, along with some bonus remixes. The album seems a bit more easily categorized as downtempo dubby minimal techno, with a crackly 4/4 beat thumping away on many tracks, but also a homespun layer of distortion along with the vibraphone, sort of resembling a more jazz-influenced version of Pole’s early works. Of course, it’s hard not to compare this work to Jan Jelinek circa Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, and sure enough, Jelinek contributes a remix here, combining two of the album’s tracks for a beat-free track with very minimal, subtle glitching and gliding. There’s also a great track called “Deep Sea And Stars” which was previously only available on a compilation, and a very minimal remix El Fog did for NQ, which just seems to consist of a low pulse and some very faint crackling sounds.

Masayoshi Fujita has released a few albums under his own name in collaboration with Jan Jelinek, on Jelinek’s Faitiche label, but Stories is his solo debut. Instead of electronics, this is a minimalist neo-classical album for vibraphone and strings. Really lovely, melodic/rhythmic gamelan-like music that fans of minimalist composers will dig. “Deers” is really driving and straightforward, “Snow Storm” is covered in a cloud of reverb but it does have a clearly discernable melody/rhythm. The track entitled “Cloud” is appropriately more droning, slow and atmospheric. “The Story Of Forest” is where the strings come in, slowly and tenderly along with the melodic vibraphone. “Story Of Waterfall I. & II.” is a longer, more abstract vibraphone piece with varying dynamics. “Swan And Morning Dews” is more slow, atmospheric vibraphone with a hint of strings. “River” is probably the most upfront, vibrant mix of vibraphone and strings, plus some sort of fuzzy percussion sound, either some sort of digital processing or maybe prepared vibraphone? “Memories Of The Wind” is another slow, quiet vibraphone piece. The whole album is extremely beautiful, dreamy, and full of wonder.