The Answer Is In The Beat

Sleeper: From Beyond tape (A Guide To Saints, 2013)

January 12, 2014 at 12:55 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Not to be confused with the ’90s Britpop band Sleeper (who I actually still quite like), or the experimental hip-hop musician, or dubstep producer, or emo band, or anyone else who’s ever used that name. This is a New Zealand musician doing drifty tape-drone stuff. Side A starts with some sort of medieval melody, which barely lasts a minute before it gets consumed by shrouded echo, and then turns into a long, slow distant drone, which sounds slightly faded and warped, and continues to sound even more so as it goes on. You’re wondering if the tape is just going to straight up break, but it keeps going and keeps returning like a slow dark decaying wave. Side B is another slowly repeating wave of darkness, but doesn’t sound as decayed, and instead of beginning with a different, more melodic part, this one ends with one, namely funeral march horns, which sound like they’re about to pick up right as the tape ends.

Rangefinder: Harmony State tape (A Guide To Saints, 2013)

January 12, 2014 at 12:22 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Seriously gorgeous cassette of ambient synth jams from Will Long (Celer). A nice series of miniatures (4.5 minutes tops, mostly around 2 or 3 minutes), with all those lovely bubbling arpeggios and warm textures that are designed to be calm and inviting, and never stop being soothing, at least to these ears. There’s a few moments of slightly aggressive distortion (“Balance Drive”) and hints of industrial tension (“Rolling Planets”), but overall, it’s a smooth, sunny, sky-gazing ride. “Sunrise Aftertouch” has hard panned delay and a bright hopeful melody and it’s only 2 minutes and I can listen to it on loop forever. “Peaks And Downfalls” is only a minute long but manages to pack such an expressive punch and could easily go on for hours and I wouldn’t mind. “Theme For Kissy Suzuki” is appropriately themelike, seems like there’s a touch of some sort of introspectiveness, maybe some lost/sad feelings. “Carrier” is an appropriately bittersweet goodbye, but not in an overly dramatic way, just a sweet sendoff. Amazing tape, up there with Celer’s Menggayakan as the best work I’ve heard from Will Long.

Jeff Carey: [3:30] (Forwind, 2013)

January 11, 2014 at 1:51 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Harsh, clanging laptop noise from a Baltimore composer who previously went by the name 87 Central and released albums on Staalplaat, ERS and JDK Productions. Entirely laptop generated, no guitars or synths. “Ballast” is filled with metallic clanging and some shredding sounds. “Phosphor” is a bit more ponderous, covering low humming in a layer of static. “Node” is also kind of low and minimal, fluttering and crunching and morphing tones. “1001” is another harsh, clanging, shredding one, fantastically blown-out and headcrushing. This is the one to rock out to. “Sink” is the least noisy, most drifty track, with some sputtering, splintering tones spread out among lots of quietness. “Lock” is back to the harshness, with clattering blastbeats almost coming close to approximating breakcore, especially when the beats get shredded. OK, THIS is the one to rock out to.

Dhow: s/t CDr (Inam Records, 2013)

January 11, 2014 at 1:18 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Yet another ultra-limited Inam CDr, with Ryan Huber and Lid Emba reprising their 2008 collaboration under a new project name. Slow, trudgy doomgaze with drums, guitars and noise. “Brightwork” has a relaxed slow tempo, nice steady rhythm, heavenly layers of melodic guitar fuzz, and some buried voices, and the rhythm fades away in the last minute and a half. “Corinthian” is the most melodic and rhythm-driven, but breaks down 2/3 of the way through into scraping and static sounds, and sort of free-floats into fog for the remainder. “Act of Grace” is another gorgeous fuzz drone with crashing drumbeats, almost sounding like if Clams Casino went shoegaze/post-rock or something. “Genoa” steps away from rhythm, instead utilizing rustling and clanging noises over a tense synth-string drone. “Azimuth” is shorter and more relatively upbeat, with more distorted drumbeats and tape-manipulated vocals under a sunny noisy guitar rhythm. “Oakum” ends the album on a reflective note, sounding like the ending scene of a dramatic, bittersweet film or TV show.