The Answer Is In The Beat

Matt Robidoux: Music For Aluminum Corn (Crash Symbols, 2023)

June 25, 2023 at 1:57 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Matt Robidoux’s newest album is named for a touch-controlled aluminum synthesizer shaped like two corn cobs, which is featured prominently throughout these compositions. It has some nice fizzy, stringy modular textures, modeled after a Buchla, but this album isn’t just a showcase for a new toy. These are inventive, playful chamber-ish compositions including woodwinds, horns, xylophone, strings, and other instruments. “Shrimp Dance” is a playful, ringing xylophone-driven piece with whirling, spinning synths and post-industrial rhythms. Other tracks like “Escalator from Dreamworld” and “Bottle Garden” are like visits to partially holographic nature areas. “Green Corn Moongreen Corn Moon” feels like a pleasant twilit stroll through a farm, then gets blitzed by fractalized electronics in the middle. The following tracks are more string-based and pastoral, and “Green Corn” has frogs throughout its second half, while “Danse Des Crevettes” combines lush strings with acidic, crunchy electronics. “Cobwork” starts with gentle rainfall, then gains criss-crossing horns and synths, and also strings and guitars and bells, creating a half-synthetic patchwork. Finally, “Precita Morning” is a more celebratory fanfare, with gliding synths and horns as well as jazzy drums that start out laid-back and eventually get more excited and raucous as the music flutters up, turning into something akin to a hyper form of birdsong.

Meadow Argus: Spool’s Gold tape (Hooker Vision, 2023)

June 24, 2023 at 3:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The latest Meadow Argus tape appears on the mighty Hooker Vision, and it’s another set of uneasy, nostalgic loop pieces. There’s a faint rhythm pulsing beneath the beginning of the first side, but that gets flattened out as something stuck in the tape deck curdles away and a sharp CB radio voice cuts through the murk for a moment. It comes back after the organ begins glimmering brighter, but it signals a shift into a more jumbled state, almost like jumping into a tornado for a minute. Later on there’s more aggressive CB radio chatter, especially on the second side, where the voices are played backwards, turning into an even rougher textural element. The hissing tape drone turns more seasick, but after a while it sort of melts into a comforting blanket of sound.

Kaizo Slumber: How Are We Feeling Today? (No Agreements, 2023)

June 12, 2023 at 9:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The newest Kaizo Slumber album is a switch from atmospheric breaks to digital hardcore, much like Machine Girl’s path from WLFGRL to …Because I’m Young Arrogant and Hate Everything You Stand For. Except this one actually has hardcore song lengths (mostly under 2 minutes), and has more explosive gabber kicks along with the distorted punk shouting and fragmented rave synths. This one beats you up in all the right ways. There’s something mannered and precise about every kick, shout, guitar riff, and compressed breakbeat, but it’s all pumped up in the most energetic way possible, and it moves from idea to idea like a low attention span DJ mix with no lulls. “Galaxy Torimoti” is filled with so much rave ecstasy it shatters your brain. “Kaizo Blunder” is only 4 minutes but feels like an odyssey, culminating in a cleansing noise wash, and then followed by a brief collage of fun effects and bonus beats. Massive recommendation.

Scan 7: The Resistance 12″ (SCAN, 2023)

June 11, 2023 at 2:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I picked this up yesterday at Tec-Troit, a free annual techno festival in Corktown, where I heard DJs play mixes of this track multiple times. Originally released on Tresor in 2012, “The Resistance” is as UR as it gets, with “Jaguar”-esque strings and a voice proclaiming “If you can hear this, you are a part of the resistance.” It gets even more inspirational with the words “Know that you are not alone fighting an ongoing battle.” Terrence Parker’s mix adds church organ, though not as wild as the organ Mad Mike was playing during UR’s set last night. UR’s own mix of the track is straight up riot music, with industrial metal guitars and a commanding “get down!” sample.