Really bizarre, hyperactive, colorful fast-n-choppy electronic music from a UK producer who put out another EP on Brainfeeder last year called Chinese Nu Yr that similarly confused and delighted me. It seems like he has some sort of hip-hop background, but this is just far more fast and glitchy than you’d expect from the beat scene. Very hyperkinetic songs which seem to pack tons of ideas into three minutes, sounding like something from any number of Japanese breakcore netlabels but less abrasive and with more of a pop sheen/focus. “Gold Tea” even has lush, choir-like R&B vocals. I think this is what I always hoped PC Music was going to sound like. Super cutesy and meta and impossible to exist without the internet, but without the ditzy girl-next-door vocals or bad taste or creepiness. This guy could end up making brains burst into cotton candy and sprinkles for a long time.
First and foremost: this is not the Detroit artist Niagara who was once the vocalist for Destroy All Monsters. Nor is it any of the other bands called Niagara (it seems like every country has at least one). This is an Italian experimental electronic duo making glitchy, dreamy, sometimes hyperactive avant-pop. Sometimes they use a sea of samples (as in opener “Mizu”), other times they use their own distorted vocals. “Escher Surfers” starts with a staccato melodic loop reminiscent of Olive’s “You’re Not Alone” (I still love that song, not gonna lie), then surrounds it with clacking drums and multi-tracked vocals. The duo pack an enormous amount of detail into their fractured, rapidly flickering songs. They feel like they’re overflowing with activity sometimes, but they’re still structured in some sort of song structure. Basically, it’s a headphone album and takes several listens to fully absorb. Once you do, you uncover worlds of sinister voices, abrasive beats, and melting/flaming computer data. It gets messy and violent at times, like on the intense “Roger Water”. Yet there’s still an underlying calmness to even the most striking moments. There’s so much uneasiness, but even the album’s ugly moments pull you in. I don’t feel like I’ve unpacked nearly everything there is to discover inside this album.
The newest solo album from the Australian pianist (and member of The Necks) layers unconventional guitar techniques, cascading pianos, and abrasive glitches, sounding a bit discordant but balanced. A lot of this album might sound jumbled and displaced at first, but it makes more sense once you listen and get used to it. The tracks are all around 5 minutes in length, and the way they begin doesn’t always indicate the way they’ll end. “1 Liter Cold Laptop”, for example, begins with dazed, buzzing electronic tones and oddly twangy guitar, and halfway through it suddenly breaks and shifts to abrasive drilling noise. “Scale Upon the Land”, on the other hand, is contemplative piano with some minor glitchy processing. “Receiver” is one of the more cluttered, topsy-turvy tracks, with sounds spilling, scratching, and swooping all over the place, in a fascinating way. “Clung Eloquent” is more reflective, jazzy piano with some sort of weird electro-acoustic atmosphere and occasional soft bass drum thumping in the background. “Trumpets of Bindweed” introduces organs and cymbals which ring like bells, and is one of the album’s more spirited, magnificent pieces (even if it doesn’t really progress all that much). “The Stones Continued Intermittently” is a 6-minute drift through a stormy, shifting swamp, and ends up much sparser than most of the album. “As Tranquil As An Apple” has really precise, music box-like metallic tones, spinning and shining prettily, and joined by playful percussion thwacks. “Rust and Comet” seems like some sort of gritty guitar contraption spinning out of orbit. Some of this album reminds me of the more recent Oval material, but generally way more interesting. It’s hard to entirely grasp what he’s doing, but it’s different, and it often sounds great.
I’m being lazy and just cut-and-pasting from the Discogs entry, because I’m not even going to attempt to paraphrase the amazing concept of this release: “This is a recording of a private performance by Ross Manning in October 2015. All sounds are the product of electrical current generated by solar cells exposed to readymade light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In a darkened space, four cells suspended on strings were set in oscillating motion. Beneath them the artist placed small artificial light sources of different colours – yellow, green, blue and red – one at a time. The resulting electrical signals, amplified and sent to one of four speakers assembled in quadrophonic array, varied with each cell’s changing exposure to the LEDs, creating dramatic modulations in volume, panning effects and polyrhythms. By adding and repositioning LEDs closer to and further away from the freely swinging cells, Manning played his optical-audio instrument live, building a changing sound mass from the individual cells. No other sound sources or effects were employed in the single-take recording split over sides A and B of this LP. Mark Gomes, 2016.”
Basically: 20 minutes of multi-layered crazy scrambling generated electrical tones. Sounds very random and chaotic, but somehow there’s a strange anti-rhythm to it. The second side is slightly more sparse, it seems to flicker out near the end. But then it gets really interesting there, it has these cool Autechre-y shredding tones.
Second Room40 release by the Swans/Foetus guitarist. The first 2 of these tracks were released on a CDr in 2012, but the last track is new. Very different than Swans or Foetus, this is textured guitar drone. Sometimes the loop pedal effects manage to create a breeze-like rhythm which carries the pieces. “410 Stairs” is the most melodic and pretty of the three tracks. “Lost Mine” is softer and feels like shuddering wind at the beginning. Not what you might expect if you’re familiar with the bands he’s been in, but it’s pretty lovely nonetheless.
Second proper album from a Brooklyn indie-prog band who have played here in Ann Arbor at Far House. Quite fun and creative. Kind of cartoony melodies sometimes, but it doesn’t seem jokey or novelty-like. It also doesn’t seem overly cutesy or “quirky” or “whimsical”, but it’s still lighthearted and playful and serious-but-not. Violins, colorful percussion, woodwinds, synths, new wave, RIO, etc. “Bridge of Ignorance Returns” is kind of a screwy Krautrock song. “Aye Aye” has a hint of country-ish slide guitar. “Other Suns” is a short moody instrumental, and is one of the album’s only calm moments. “Garden of the Ape” is kind of a demented fractured surf-ish song. The whole album is pretty short, about 30 minutes, but it packs a weird, squishy punch.
Debut EP from an Ypsi-based group mining the sad, ‘gazey sounds of the ’90s for their fuzzy alt-pop songs. For fans of Failure, Hum, Pinback, certain elements of the first Weezer album, and sitting home alone, drinking. Okay, just kidding, it’s not THAT depressing. There’s controlled distortion and some bendy guitar sounds, but the vocals are clear and coherent (sometimes there’s even harmonies). “More Time” actually sounds closer to a very straightforward, non-avant Sonic Youth. “Under My Head” is sadder and prettier and has some sort of Mellotron-like soft keyboard drone. Playing around the area often, including a show with Fred Thomas @ UFO Factory in Detroit on 5/19!
This Polish duo recorded their hour-long debut in one take after two years of conceptualizing the band without actually creating anything. The music often consists of simple acid techno sequences and grubby beats, with found tapes, radio transmissions, and toy instruments added into the mix. Some of it is prime industrial noise-techno which immediately hits the pleasure centers, while other tracks go on longer and are more subtle, awash in haunted desolateness. Some of the tracks use the same rhythms, so it does feel like a spontaneous jam, but it’s not anything to complain about. “Full Martin Heemeyer” has a low, thumping beat and big, expansive bass tone designed to give you the heebie-jeebies. Fans of Frak should be all over this one. It’s probably sold out physically, but it’s up on Bandcamp.
Hour 1
2:02 am Andy Stott ~ “Over” ~ Too Many Voices (new) ~ Modern Love ~ 2016
2:06 am Tourist ~ “Foolish” ~ U (new) ~ Monday ~ 2016
2:10 am Five Star Hotel (local) ~ “Damaged Vessel” ~ Body Absolution (new) ~ Visual Disturbances ~ 2016
2:14 am Antwood ~ “Spirit Fabric” ~ Virtuous.scr (new) ~ Planet Mu ~ 2016
2:19 am Pattern Behavior ~ “The Next Best Thing (Somatic Responses Industriomix)” ~ The Next Best Thing (Somatic Responses Remixes) (new) ~ Component ~ 2016
2:25 am A Sagittariun ~ “Chapter & Verse” ~ Elasticity (new) ~ Elastic Dreams ~ 2016
2:31 am Vend ~ “Ten” ~ Two Point Two ~ 12k/Line ~ 2003
2:37 am Ian William Craig ~ “A Single Hope” ~ Centres (new) ~ FatCat ~ 2016
2:43 am Michael Stearns ~ “Movement 3 – (Continued) – Pastorale” ~ Chronos ~ Sonic Atmospheres ~ 1985
2:48 am Klaus Schulze ~ “Mindphaser (excerpt)” ~ Mindphaser ~ Brain ~ 1976
2:58 am Fumio Miyashita ~ “God’s Touch” ~ Journey to Space ~ Relativity ~ 1984 Hour 2
3:02 am Conrad Schnitzler ~ “side A (excerpt)” ~ Concert ~ Idiosyncratics ~ 1985
3:07 am Cluster ~ “Avanti” ~ Grosses Wasser ~ Sky ~ 1979
3:12 am Mark Lane ~ “White Glove” ~ Who’s Really Listening? ~ Idiosyncratics ~ 1984
3:16 am Die Doraus & Die Marinas ~ “Sandkorn” ~ Die Doraus Und Die Marinas Geben Offenherzige Antworten Auf Brennende Fragen ~ Bureau B ~ 1983
3:18 am Palais Schaumburg ~ “Morgen wird der Wald gefegt” ~ Palais Schaumburg ~ Bureau B ~ 1981
3:23 am Blanche Blanche Blanche ~ “Heat Wilson’s Goal” ~ 2wice 2wins ~ Feeding Tube ~ 2011
3:26 am Jackie Lynn ~ “Chicken Picken” ~ Jackie Lynn (new) ~ Thrill Jockey ~ 2016
3:30 am Broadcast ~ “Living Room” ~ Work and Non Work ~ Warp ~ 1997
3:33 am Dzang ~ “Need Tongue” ~ Lotion (new) ~ Dzang Recs ~ 2015
3:41 am Laraaji ~ “The Dance #2” ~ Ambient 3: Day of Radiance ~ Glitterbeat ~ 1980
3:51 am Matthewdavid’s Mindflight ~ “Ocean Dream Symphony” ~ Trust The Guide And Glide (new) ~ Leaving Records ~ 2016 Hour 3
4:00 am Rob Mazurek & Emmett Kelly ~ “Bright Nights Havoc” ~ Alien Flower Sutra (new) ~ International Anthem ~ 2016
4:03 am Nickolas Mohanna ~ “Voice Contraband” ~ Mantis (new) ~ Preservation ~ 2016
4:10 am Wanda Group ~ “A Bag of Warm Milk (excerpt)” ~ Central Heating (new) ~ Opal Tapes ~ 2016
4:17 am $3.33 ~ “Just a Dip,” ~ Just a Dip, No Why. (new) ~ Dzang Recs ~ 2016
4:34 am rbchmbrs ~ “Act I – “At the Circus”” ~ Good Night Nurse EP (new) ~ .oldneon ~ 2016
4:42 am AshTreJinkins ~ “Next Area 1” ~ Zone of the Enders (new) ~ New Los Angeles ~ 2016
4:45 am Suzi Analogue ~ “I Gett Itt” ~ Zonez V. 1 (new) ~ Never Normal ~ 2016
4:49 am Echaskech ~ “Round of Ten” ~ Certainty of Tides EP (new) ~ Just Music ~ 2016
4:52 am Housemeister ~ “Multiversum” ~ Transfer (new) ~ Detroit Underground ~ 2016
4:58 am Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer ~ “Draw” ~ Twine (new) ~ 12k ~ 2015 Hour 4
5:02 am Gunslinger-R ~ “Moudamepopotan” ~ 00’s Anison Hit Parade ~ The Worst ~ 2015
5:05 am J:Kenzo ~ “Skatta” ~ 12″ (new) ~ Cosmic Bridge ~ 2016
5:09 am Ital ~ “Ital’s Theme” ~ 12″ ~ 100% Silk ~ 2011
5:15 am Wire ~ “Numbered” ~ Nocturnal Koreans (new) ~ Pink Flag ~ 2016
5:18 am Grauzone ~ “Eisbär” ~ Aus Grauer Städte Mauern – Die Neue Deutsche Welle 1977-85 Teil 4 ~ Bear Family ~ 1981
5:22 am Serge Gainsbourg ~ “Ford Mustang” ~ Comic Strip ~ Mercury ~ 1968
5:25 am Chris Cohen ~ “As If Apart” ~ As If Apart (new) ~ Captured Tracks ~ 2016
5:28 am Steve Roach/Robert Logan ~ “Moment’s Notice” ~ Second Nature (new) ~ Projekt ~ 2016
5:36 am Horse Lords ~ “Truthers” ~ Interventions (new) ~ Northern Spy ~ 2016
5:42 am Joanna Brouk ~ “Fire Breath” ~ Hearing Music (new) ~ Numero Group ~ 2016
5:49 am Christoph Heemann ~ “Über Den Umgang Mit Umgebung Und Andere Versuche Teil 2” ~ Lebenserinnerungen Eines Lepidopterologen ~ Robot Records ~ 1991
5:56 am Tim Hecker ~ “Violet Monumental II” ~ Love Streams (new) ~ 4AD ~ 2016
The Answer Is In The Beat 