June 12, 2021 at 3:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Friends & Mentors 12″
on Thomas Xu’s Steady Flight Circle spotlights several of his close associates and inspirations. Terri Whodat starts the record off with long hallway kicks, eventually joined by a piano loop that seems to stumble its way onto the track at first, but as the beat comes back, it all makes sense together and rides smoothly. Poseidon Neptune’s “Saht Nam” has more intricate beats and bass patterns, under a canopy of synth pads which cool everything down, instead of making it more tense. Meftah’s “Ur Utility” has both analog ambiance and a low-slung, gritty push, having sort of a similar cratedigger feel as his hip-hop productions but in a house mindstate. Finally, “9th Creation (Short Mix)” by John Silas has soothing keyboard melodies and a sneaky John Barera bassline, which all seem to dance gleefully with each other, and it does seem to end abruptly before everything feels worn out.
June 11, 2021 at 4:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
T. Griffin: The Proposal Original Soundtrack
to Jill Magid’s documentary about the protected legacy of Mexican architect Luis Barragán is a raw set of evocative pieces mainly recorded in a living room in Long Island. Its players include alto saxophonist Matana Roberts (composer of the Constellation-issued
Coin Coin series), drummer Jim White (of Dirty Three), and Godspeed You! Black Emperor members Sophie Trudeau and Timothy Herzog. Griffin plays banjo, guitars, keyboards, percussion, and other instruments, as well as field recordings. The music often seems more like a haunting performance by a chamber music group or a dark jazz ensemble than a typical soundtrack. “Manufacture” is a delicate, floating synth-driven piece, and “Copyright Implications” is a more sinister scene with voices spilling over from a distant room. Banjo and violin give “Void Room and Reliquary” a much less alienated and more direct feeling. Several other tracks are similarly both spacious and intimate, and most of them are brief moments that slip away just as quickly as they appear. “The Nun With a Chipped Tooth” is allowed to play out as a slightly longer scene, and nothing interrupts the simply gorgeous “As Ever” as it gracefully glides.
June 10, 2021 at 8:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Tim Walters: Stricture
Tim Walters has released a few stellar albums of deep-fried noise using analog synths and SuperCollider coding.
His newest one doesn’t come with too much info, but I’m assuming it’s along the same lines. The 7 tracks unpredictably dart between various scenes and settings, from construction-like industriousness to weird bongwater splattering. “Expired! Perfect.” isn’t as explosive as the first track, but the strained, spy-like voices keep it on edge. “Taking the Skins for a Spin” is by turns rubbery, static-riddled, and bitcrushed, with a few moments where it seems like a code is cracked and everything abruptly bursts open. “Flusterville” is both swampy and electrically charged, and “Patience Practice” has a similar mood but feels like it’s aiming skyward.
June 3, 2021 at 9:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
The North Sea & hyacinth.: Poppies
I haven’t caught up with all the releases on Brad Rose’s
The Jewel Garden label yet, but
this split between their long-running The North Sea project and Portland’s hyacinth. is a marvel of polar opposites. The North Sea’s “The Stationer’s Shop” is 22 minutes of COVID-induced doom, violently shaking and squirming in place like it’s glued to the floor, with heavier, more prowling synths gradually piling on more and more layers of dread. You feel like you’ve been in a sort of reverse car wash afterwards, hosing you down and scrubbing you with dirt and grime, yet it feels just as cleansing afterwards. And then the
hyacinth. tracks are basically a beat tape of relaxed, slow-moving chill grooves, with airy sequences levitating over thumping, skipping beats. Each track sounds it would perfectly soundtrack a brief, slightly offbeat scene that basically involves some strange objects swaying or whirling around. A few tracks like “casper.” sound especially off-spool and doused with narcotics, but a fair amount of it could fit in pretty much any poolside beats playlist.
June 2, 2021 at 9:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Iran: Aemilia
Not to be confused with the noise-rock band led by the late Aaron Aites,
this Iran is an Italian trio who make sprawling but structured improvised instrumentals, using analog keyboards, guitar, and drums. There’s also self-described “crappy drum machines”, toy keyboards, field recordings, and other sounds and instruments in the mix. The opening track “Qom” is a very ragtag piece with noisy analog keyboards and metallic percussion, and while it twists in a couple different directions, it’s very groove-forward, which keeps it from getting completely chaotic. “Magnitogorsk” has a more consistent mood, with hypnotic patterns played on well-worn keyboards over skittering, echoing drum machines. The nearly 10-minute “Xenopolis” is a sort of junkyard battle that ends in a desert hallucination. “Regium Lepidi” starts out soft and slow, but its rusty saxophone helps blow it out of balance, and the whirring keyboards warm up and the drums whisk it off the ground. After another dusty epic (“Cuma”), “Aral” is easily the album’s most upbeat, joyous track, but also one that bubbles, boils, and haunts. Finally, “Bam” mostly drifts rather than scorches, although there is a spicy part in the middle.
June 1, 2021 at 6:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Melissa Grey & David Morneau: Symbolic Gesture
A sonic response to an exhibition,
Symbolic Gesture is a short 5-track release filled with interconnected patterns and an inventive mixture of chiptune textures, refracted effects, trombones, and field recordings. Matching the album’s intricate cover art, a throbbing beat frames the prismatic patterns, which are twisted at irregular intervals, while voices interject the words which make up the titles of the pieces. String duo Miolina add delicate plucks to the somewhat awkward breaths and airy pulsations of “Kirlian”. After the minimalist RPG score of “[again]”, “Shekinah” comes alive with hordes of chirping insects, then eases into a slowly chiming drone which oozes back and forth.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 