December | 2017 | The Answer Is In The Beat

Crush Collision 12/28/17 – Best of 2017 mix!

December 29, 2017 at 2:02 am | Posted in Crush Collision | 1 Comment

Hour 1
10:04 pm Gas ~ “Narkopop 2”
10:08 pm DC Salas feat. Joy Wellboy ~ “Cala Falco”
10:13 pm Siriusmo ~ “Comic”
10:15 pm Solitary Dancer feat. Marie Davidson ~ “Emails 2 Myself”
10:19 pm Pessimist ~ “Grit”
10:22 pm Porter Ricks ~ “Sandy Ground”
10:24 pm Moiré ~ “Secret Window”
10:27 pm Sebastian Mullaert ~ “Wings of Remembrance”
10:31 pm Lanark Artefax ~ “Touch Absence”
10:36 pm Throwing Snow ~ “Helical”
10:38 pm NHK yx Koyxen ~ “Dented”
10:40 pm Ross From Friends ~ “Would You Still Be Here”
10:44 pm Mall Grab ~ “Catching Feelings”
10:48 pm DJ Seinfeld ~ “Time Spent Away From U”
10:52 pm Actress ~ “Dancing in the Smoke”
10:55 pm Black Hat ~ “Unfortunate Statement”
10:58 pm Carl Craig ~ “Technology”
Hour 2
11:03 pm Four Tet ~ “Planet”
11:07 pm Machine Woman ~ “Camile From OHM Makes Me Feel Loved”
11:11 pm Rimbaudian ~ “Drop It On Em”
11:15 pm Steffi ~ “Schools of Thought”
11:18 pm Rebekah ~ “Code Black”
11:22 pm T.Raumschmiere ~ “Wacker”
11:26 pm Caracoa ~ “Last Year on Earth”
11:30 pm Doon Kanda ~ “Axolotl”
11:31 pm Bicep ~ “Glue”
11:36 pm Joy Orbison ~ “Off Season”
11:41 pm Second Storey ~ “Barrel Roll”
11:45 pm Sherwood & Pinch ~ “Retribution”
11:48 pm Djrum ~ “Broken Glass Arch”
11:53 pm Kingdom ~ “Tears in the Club”
11:56 pm Shanti Celeste ~ “Make Time”
[next DJ was late so after midnight I had time to sneak in another track]
12:03 am Benjamin Damage ~ “Montreal”

Build Buildings: Glass EP (Audiobulb, 2018)

December 25, 2017 at 8:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Build Buildings: Glass EP

Build Buildings has been making glitchy, melodic IDM for over a decade now, but only seems to have surfaced with a few small releases and comp appearances. This brief EP on Audiobulb sounds like windowpanes cut into different but still functional shapes, arranged into sounds. Bright and shining, reflecting everyday realities into different contexts. There’s only 4 songs and none of them last long, but it’s all calm, thoughtful, detailed, and uplifting. “Cedilla” features slightly harder beats than the other tracks, but being hard isn’t what this is about.

Form a Log: At a Festival tape (Hausu Mountain, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 8:14 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Form a Log: At a Festival tape

Following a split LP with fellow troublemakers Moth Cock, Form a Log release their first Hausu Mountain tape. This is a barrage of pounding drums, frayed electronics, cartoonish guitars, and voices stretched past the limitations of the human body. Also, there’s some sort of ska theme apparent, at least in some of the track titles. There’s about as much wackiness as you might expect from FaL, but some of it sounds a bit more haunted. It’s not quite as carnivalesque as the title of the tape. “Raymond” is filled with ghostly moaning, and “This Is Your Captain Speaking” could be an abstract warning for an impending crash, but tracks like “The Sizzler” are goofy and joyous. Then there’s the lovely guitar strumming during “The Ska Files”, which gets interrupted by an ungrateful audience and a bunch of glitched-out harmonica and other noises.

Anna Burch: Party tape (Life Like, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 6:54 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Anna Burch: Party tape

Anna Burch (Failed Flowers, Frontier Ruckus) released a split tape with Stef Chura last year, and she’s due to release her proper debut album on Polyvinyl next year, but this brief tape appeared this year. Crowd sounds are dubbed into the background, making it seem like a performance at a party or an open mic night, but the crowd obviously isn’t responding to the music or interacting with it in any way, so there’s a sort of awkward disconnect, and the lyrics seem related to this feeling. Super casual sounding, especially when Anna admits between songs that she messed up certain parts, but the songs themselves are really powerful. If this was an actual live recording, there’s no way the audience would be treating the music as background noise. Available directly from Life Like, now in its second pressing.

Utica: untitled tape (Life Like, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 6:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Utica: untitled tape

Hourlong debut tape from a trio containing members of other groups who have released tapes on Life Like (Hydropark, UZ, Land & Buildings). Edited down from improv sessions, these pieces shimmer like Fripp & Eno with some Roedelius piano magic mixed in, along with some synth spritz and more active/intricate basslines and patterns than you might imagine. Really floaty and daze-y but it still sounds like a lot of work was put into this, even though the sounds just seem to pour out from the musicians. Seriously wonderful and relaxing. Available directly from Life Like.

SCLT: On Contradiction tape (Life Like, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 5:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

SCLT: On Contradiction tape

New tape from a mysterious entity which seems to document some sort of falling out or tense feelings during an aftermath. Dark, rolling Lawrence English-like drone with some distant pianos and shreds of light. A little bit menacing, maybe even a bit scary, and some of the pieces have sudden endings which can be jarring. Most of this is a bath of heavy static and hard feelings but not hard actions. The somewhat intrusive bumps during the beginning of “Armature” add some bustling movement, but then they drift away into the horizon before the end of the tape. Available directly from Life Like.

Koltay: untitled tape (Life Like, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 5:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Koltay: untitled tape

Capturing brief excerpts of a Detroit-recorded drone piece called “Spring Patch”, this 20-minute cassette contains bright but somewhat alarmed glacial synths and ethereal vocals, with some stray conversation present in the mix. It’s hard to tell whether it happened during the actual performance or if it was overdubbed later; there’s something detached and vibrational about them. There’s no beginning or end to the music on each side, you just press play and you’re in the center of the performance, and then it cuts off at the end of the side. In fact, it ends just as it feels like it’s about to transition to a new phase. A brief but shimmering glimpse into what must have been a mesmerizing experience.

Shells: 2 LP (Ginkgo Records, 2017)

December 25, 2017 at 4:16 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Shells: 2 LP

Four years after releasing her solo guitar opus In A Cloud, Shelley Salant returns with her second solo LP, this time on her own Ginkgo Records. These songs have more layers to them, with more shades of guitars and even drums and synths on a few songs. “Nacimiento Road” and “Out There” come close to a sort of ragged SY-style alternative rock, making it obvious why Thurston asked her to open for his current group a few times this year. Some tracks combine electric and acoustic guitars, such as the fizzy closing track “Field”. Dubby echo effects and distortion dust things off occasionally, and things get a little bubbly around the end of the first side, but this isn’t an exercise in studio trickery. Instead, it’s a showcase for autumnal melodies which are neither too complicated nor too simple. Fantastic work as always! Purchase/listen on Bandcamp!

Show #424 – 12/23/17

December 24, 2017 at 12:13 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

2:02 am Shells (local) ~ “Out There” ~ Shells 2 (new) ~ Ginkgo Records ~ 2017
2:06 am Hologram Teen ~ “Magique Afrique” ~ Between The Funk And The Fear (new) ~ Polytechnic Youth ~ 2017
2:09 am Shigeto (local) ~ “In Case You Forgot” ~ The New Monday (new) ~ Ghostly International ~ 2017
2:13 am Autechre ~ “Teartear” ~ Amber ~ Warp ~ 1994
2:19 am Bogus Order ~ “Flight 4” ~ Zen Brakes Vol. 2 (new) ~ Ahead of Our Time ~ 2017
2:25 am Pauline Anna Strom ~ “Virgin Ice” ~ Trans-Millenia Music ~ Rvng Intl. ~ 1984
2:32 am The Seven Fields of Aphelion ~ “Triptych: Going Under / The Blur / The Way Beyond” ~ Keep the Ocean Inside (new) ~ Rad Cult ~ 2017
2:41 am Windy & Carl (local) ~ “A New World” ~ Blues For A UFO (new) ~ Bandcamp ~ 2017
2:49 am ensemble, et al. ~ “Ondrejko” ` The Slow Reveal (new) ~ Imaginator Records ~ 2017
2:57 am Új Bála ~ “Sunspot” ~ Shape Platform 2017 – Sound, Heterogeneous Art And Performance In Europe (new) ~ The Wire ~ 2017
3:02 am Bullion ~ “Blue Pedro” ~ 12″ (new) ~ The Trilogy Tapes ~ 2017
3:07 am Octo Octa ~ “Adrift (Avalon Emerson’s Furiously Awake Version)” ~ 12″ (new) ~ HNYTRX ~ 2017
3:15 am Ciel ~ “Elevate (Go Off Mix)” ~ 12″ (new) ~ Peach Discs ~ 2017
3:21 am Skee Mask ~ “Routine” ~ 12″ (new) ~ Ilian Tape ~ 2017
3:27 am Cherushii ~ “Milk of Paradise” ~ Warrior Loves (Tribute To Cherushii) (new) ~ Sound Warrior Recordings ~ 2017
3:36 am Coucou Chloé ~ “Stamina” ~ Erika Jane (new) ~ Nuxxe ~ 2017
3:39 am Vytear ~ “Twombly Bown_M3” ~ Kingtrips EP1 (new) ~ Occult Research ~ 2017
3:43 am Galaxian ~ “Dosing The Population” ~ Dosing The Population ~ Lower Parts ~ 2017
3:47 am Batu ~ “Marius” ~ 12″ (new) ~ Hessle Audio ~ 2017
3:52 am Samuel Kerridge ~ “Possession/Control” ~ The Silence Between Us (new) ~ Downwards ~ 2017
3:59 am Errorsmith ~ “I’m Interesting, Cheerful & Sociable” ~ Superlative Fatigue (new) ~ Pan ~ 2017
4:04 am Denis Sulta ~ “Dubelle Oh XX (JVIP)” ~ 12″ ~ Sulta Selects ~ 2017
4:09 am Nkisi ~ “Kill” ~ Kill ~ MW Records Norway ~ 2017
4:13 am PAINT ~ “Beast Mode” ~ Exodus (new) ~ 20/20 LDN ~ 2017
4:18 am Gosheven ~ “Memory Failure” ~ Leaper (new) ~ Opal Tapes ~ 2017
4:22 am Mhysa ~ “Spectrum” ~ Fantasii (new) ~ Halcyon Veil ~ 2017
4:25 am Klein ~ “B2K” ~ Tommy (new) ~ Hyperdub ~ 2017
4:31 am Soul Capsule ~ “Them Yeah” ~ Superlongevity 6 (new) ~ Perlon ~ 2017
4:37 am Oluko Imo ~ “Praise Jah” ~ 12″ ~ Invisible City Editions ‎ ~ 1978
4:43 am Jlin ~ “Holy Child” ~ Black Origami ~ Planet Mu ~ 2017
4:47 am Jana Rush ~ “No Fuks Given” ~ Pariah ~ Objects Limited ~ 2017
4:52 am Gajek ~ “Das Ewige Fest” ~ ’17 (new) ~ Monkeytown ~ 2017
4:58 am Claude Speeed ~ “Entering the Zone” ~ Infinity Ultra (new) ~ Planet Mu ~ 2017
5:03 am Strange U ~ “Bullet Proof Mustache” ~ #LP4080 ~ High Focus Records ~ 2017
5:07 am Open Mike Eagle ~ “No Selling (Uncle Butch Pretending It Dont Hurt)” ~ Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (new) ~ Mello Music Group ~ 2017
5:10 am Sun Ra and His Outer Space Arkestra ~ “Rocket #9” ~ Singles ~ Strut ~ 1967
5:12 am Phill Musra Group ~ “The Creator Is So Far Out” ~ Creator Spaces ~ Now-Again ~ 1974
5:19 am Grupo Um ~ “Mobile/Stabile” ~ Invenciones (La Otra Vanguardia Musical En Latinoamérica 1976-1988) ~ Munster Records ~ 1981
5:27 am Norbert Stein & Pata Messengers ~ “Be Yond!” ~ We Are (new) ~ Pata Music ~ 2017
5:30 am Liebman/Murley Quartet ~ “Open Spaces” ~ Live at U of T (new) ~ U of T Jazz ~ 2017
5:34 am Shabazz Palaces ~ “30 Clip Extension” ~ Quazarz Vs. the Jealous Machines ~ Sub Pop ~ 2017
5:39 am Grieves ~ “Boop Bop Da Willy Willy” ~ Running Wild (new) ~ Rhymesayers ~ 2017
5:43 am Eliot Lipp ~ “Tides” ~ Skywave (new) ~ Young Heavy Souls ~ 2017
5:46 am Kllo ~ “By Your Side” ~ Backwater (new) ~ Ghostly International ~ 2017
5:52 am Funkadelic ~ “Looking Back At You (Ectomorph Stripped and Dubbed)” ~ Reworked by Detroiters (new) ~ Westbound ~ 2017

Crush Collision 12/21/17

December 22, 2017 at 12:18 pm | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

Hour 1
10:01 pm Big Miz ~ “Cotard Delusion”
10:06 pm Doc Daneeka ~ “Better Dayz”
10:11 pm Ephemeral ~ “Common Grounds”
10:15 pm Vincent Floyd ~ “Hard to Love (instr.)”
10:19 pm Genius of Time ~ “Netscape”
10:22 pm Fort Romeau ~ “Sequence In D”
10:27 pm Henry Burner ~ “You Ain’t Really Magic”
10:30 pm Elisa Bee ~ “Pulsar”
10:33 pm Eduardo de la Calle ~ “Hobson’s Choice”
10:37 pm Debora Navarro ~ “Apocalypse”
10:43 pm FaltyDL ~ “Frigid Air (O’Flynn Remix)”
10:46 pm Blurred ~ “Matic”
10:50 pm Ade Fenton ~ “Manipulator (Ben Long Spore Remix)”
10:55 pm Deep’a & Biri ~ “Decision Tree (Yotam Avni Remix)”
Hour 2
11:01 pm Gotshell ~ “Coptos”
11:04 pm Stave ~ “B5”
11:09 pm Smersh ~ “Sideways (Charles Manier Remix)”
11:14 pm Bergsonist ~ “Mutation”
11:18 pm Stripper ~ “Consciousness Proliferation (Back 2 93)”
11:25 pm A Sagittariun ~ “Pseudo_Science”
11:29 pm Christian Piers ~ “02020202”
11:33 pm Arkajo ~ “Tape 7”
11:38 pm Samuel Rohrer ~ “Lenina (Ricardo Villalobos Remix)”
11:49 pm Squane x Rees ~ “Illuminating”
11:53 pm D-Knox ~ “Sick Mind”
11:57 pm DJ 3000 ~ “Unfazed”