The Answer Is In The Beat

Coppice: Cores/Eruct (Category Of Manifestation, 2015)

April 26, 2015 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Something is dreadfully wrong with these machines. It’s like they’re intentionally malfunctioning; wheezing, sputtering, blanking out, doing everything but what they’re supposed to. It’s hard to be productive if these robots simply aren’t doing their jobs. The room is filled with gray dustclouds and a musty odor and it’s going to take a lot of backbreaking labor to get everything back in working order again. How did I get myself into this mess anyway?!?!

…………

This album’s credits list a lot of prepared and modified instruments and objects, but sometimes they just sound, well, broken. Plenty of buzzing and swooping (rhythmic swooping, somewhat) and just generally lots of mechanical drone. The highlight is 13-minute centerpiece “While Like Teem Or Bloom Comes (Tipping)”, which processed and loops the sound of a pump organ into some loud acoustic drone vortex. Very difficult and possibly patience-testing, but they make it sound like it’s intentional, like these objects were created to make these sounds. It’s great. Now excuse me, I think I need to fix my radiator again. [I don’t actually have a radiator]

Triac: Days (Line, 2015)

April 26, 2015 at 8:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Soft slow-moving ambient drone. Some of it swells up, some of it is more blurry, some of it has tones which sort of jut out and form melodies. It gets a little dark, but it’s still gentle all the time.

M. Ostermeier: Still (Tench, 2015)

April 26, 2015 at 6:22 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Marc Ostermeier of shoegaze band Should has been exploring minimalist piano ambience for a few years now, this is the third such album on his Tench label. Piano is the focus here, but there’s calm electronic drone and field recordings. Lots of rattling and clicking sounds. “Counterpoise” sticks out with its electronic glitch textures. “Congruence” has heavy bass tones (not super heavy, kind of hollow, but definitely high volume). “Inertia” has high-pitched tweeting sine waves. “Parity” has more bass tones. For fans of Alva Noto’s collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Silo Homes: s/t (self-released, 2014)

April 26, 2015 at 4:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Lonesome drone-folk which sounds like it’s being performed in an echo chamber the size of a barn. Seriously lovely chiming guitar, ghostly echoes of vocals, and glorious tape hiss. So heartbroken and lost and desolate. It’s wonderful. I don’t want to go outside, it’s too sunny and people will try to talk to me and make me feel better. Fuck that.

Marie Davidson: Un Autre Voyage (Holodeck, 2015)

April 11, 2015 at 9:40 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Second LP from a Montreal minimal wave chanteuse who is in Land Of Kush, Les Momies de Palerme (both of which have released albums on Constellation Records), and a few other projects. Her sound combines mostly spoken vocals (in both French and English) with lo-fi drum machine beats and bleepy synth patterns. Some of the beats (particularly on “Excès de Vitesse” and “Balade Aux USA”) approach Italo-disco, while the simmering, pulsating “Kidnap You In The Desert” is as much an abduction scene as its title suggests. Haunted, sparse “Perséphone” is a duet with Pierre Guerineau, who sort of resembles a French Dracula on this song. “Insomnie” is a stunning starscape with less emphasis on vocals than the other tracks.