The Answer Is In The Beat

Woody Sullender: Music from Four Movements & Other Favorites (Dead CEO, 2022)

September 23, 2022 at 5:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Woody Sullender’s first release in over a decade contains pieces from Four Movements, a downloadable project which seems to function as a video game, interactive environment, and album all at once. There’s a demo video on his website, it looks pretty amazing. The music is pretty fantastic on its own. Sullender plays banjo and produces minimalist electro-acoustic soundscapes, heavily influenced by techno on several of these tracks, particularly the mesmerizing “Figment Pattern” and “Towards Minus”, a remake of “Minus” from Robert Hood’s 1994 minimal techno blueprint Internal Empire. “The Tale of the Brook to the Pool” is more fragile, dissolving away from rhythm, then slowly reforming. “Chelsea” starts with low thumps, crackling static, and slow acid techno growls, with haunted echoes taking over the piece as the kick drum thumps onward. “House of Calm Serenity” is a lengthier, more droning track featuring harmonica by Seamus Cater, Sullender’s collaborator for his last release, the 2020 LP When We Get to Meeting. Final track “Life Without Objects” is echo-heavy enough to qualify as dub techno, yet it’s busy and full of movement rather than loop-based and repetitive.

Connie Han: Secrets of Inanna (Mack Avenue, 2022)

September 21, 2022 at 6:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pianist Connie Han follows 2020’s impressive Iron Starlet with an album inspired by ancient Sumerian culture, specifically the goddess of love, beauty and war. Mostly consisting of compositions by Han and/or drummer Bill Wysaske, who produced the album, the release is conceptually inspired by ancient mythology, but doesn’t necessarily play like a typical concept album. Tracks like “Gilgamesh and the Celestial Bull” demonstrate Han’s stunning technical virtuosity, yet her music is more accessible than it may seem. She switches to Fender Rhodes for the playful, sparkling “Young Moon”, as well as parts of the first and last tracks. The less restricted hard bop tracks like “The Gallü Pursuit” are the most exciting ones, but Han never fails to impress.

Nickolas Mohanna: Sight Drawings LP (Run/Off, 2022)

September 15, 2022 at 6:45 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The newest record from Nickolas Mohanna is a continuously flowing suite of shivering vibrations, sampled sounds from nature, and intimately miked acoustic instruments, all gradually merging into a rhythm which seems like it’s channeling something from deep within the earth. Beginning with hyper-tense jittering, the sounds evolve into rattling, drumming, and acoustic bass by the beginning of “Earthworks”, which later becomes consumed by a swarming drone which slows time down. “Riprap” feels looser and more relaxed, mainly focusing on a few resounding notes and letting feedback ripple into a nearly hidden patch of introspective piano notes. An almost upbeat rhythm emerges in time for “Kinetics”, as pianos tremble and everything gets splashed by a wash of phasing effects. Strings dissolve into digital clouds during “The Atomist”, and “Rolling Block” starts out as jumpy, antsy strings before it smooths out to slow, rich bowing.

Graham Repulski: Zero Shred Forty (Shorter Recordings, 2022)

September 14, 2022 at 7:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Graham Repulski returns to his much weirder solo work after releasing several albums with his band Von Hayes. 10 tracks zip by in 20 minutes, with cryptic lyrics howled out against bricks of guitar distortion and tinny drum machines. The guitar chords clash against the vocals, which seem like a weapon, with the tape hiss serving as a cloak. After the clanking, sideways hooks of opener “Wait Wait”, “Flaming Television” is an anthemic wailer condensed into less than two minutes and stuffed with messy guitars. “Boiled Again” is much longer (almost 5 minutes!) and more hypnotic, with a droney violin solo and a few lines that make the first verse of “So What’cha Want” pop up in my head, yet they aren’t direct quotes. A brief noise interlude precedes “Tart Milk”, a brief tune with a similar sort of wobbliness as “Wait Wait”, but this feels more like a fragment of a mutated ’80s pop song. “Rated Violence” is pretty straightforward and fades out without much consequence. Then we get to “Zoey the Cat,” a minute and a half of keyboard clouds, screeching violin, and zoned-out thoughts. “Failure Jam” dunks its catchy melodies under fluttering tremolo effects. “Jinx Pimp” is another hazy reflection under sheets of guitar fuzz, then the final track is an audio recording of someone walking outside and doing… something, it’s impossible to tell what. Like other Repulski releases, this one has some unshakeable hooks, but it also teases the listener with experiments and unexpected audio riddles.

Sunfear: Octopus (Dark Entries, 2022)

September 13, 2022 at 8:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Sunfear’s debut album often buries simple, resonant guitar and vocals in cocoons of echo, with natural sounds flowing and trickling on certain tracks, making it feel like an intimate performance in a magical forest. It feels simultaneously right up close and distant, hazy, untouchable. The lyrics might be about forgetting, or not knowing where someone is. The specifics can be hard to grasp, but the overall experience leaves a distinct impression. The one song with drums, “Octopus”, pulls you along and keeps you afloat, just narrowly avoiding tumbling into a vast pool of regret — the chorus seems to go “I’m sorry, I guess”. Lastly, “Goodbye” detaches from everything else and departs the earth without any hesitations. It’s remarkable when someone can create something that sounds lost, wandering, disembodied, yet focused and specific, nothing close to a formless mess.