April 7, 2023 at 8:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
James Fella & Gabriella Isaac: Performances LP
contains performances from Gilgongo’s 15th anniversary celebration in 2019, starting with a duo set and followed by solo sets. The first part of side A is James Fella & Gabriella Isaac together, using the six reference lacquers from their
CCTK Music album in order to make a live collage (similar to the B-side of that record). While the source material for the original recordings included a cymbal and a kalimba, this is a jagged maelstrom of harsh, violent feedback, sometimes speed-altered so that it turns into a surreal, hallucinatory noise experience. Isaac then performs a solo laptop noise set, starting out with controlled dispersions before erupting into multi-tracked digital chaos, ripping through several channels at unpredictable intervals. I tend to appreciate noise best when it’s finely tuned yet harsh and chaotic, rather than just a wall of static, so artists like John Wiese (who recorded and mastered this) stand out, and this is entirely in that space. The second side is just Fella, and it’s a longer piece primarily created using tape machines. It starts out with the whirring sounds of rewinding or fast-forwarding cartridges, then gradually piles on more rapid bursts of feedback and tape manipulations, sometimes sounding like smudged static, other times like hyperspeed classical piano. A dark, metallic fog sets in, and scraping steel sounds creep in from several angles, yet after a while it’s apparent that these are audio illusions, and they start to bend and fray. While nowhere near as noisy as the first side, it has its own way of disrupting reality.
April 6, 2023 at 7:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Mantra: Damaged EP
Mantra’s
first EP on Sneaker Social Club starts out with a track that brings hard, knocking garage beats, immediately commanding attention, partially because I wasn’t expecting it from the Rupture co-founder. “Murda” is exactly in the hard, rolling, ruff jungle wheelhouse, exactly what I ordered. “Victory Dance” has the choppage and hypnotic aura, and semi-obscured vocal samples, but it doesn’t go all out. “Ala” is a more low-key late night broken beat shuffler. The tracks are tightly produced and restrained when they need to be, but they bring the heat when played loud.
April 5, 2023 at 6:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Skins: Sauce Direct Vol. 1 EP
Searching this artist and title combo doesn’t pop up as many food-related results as I expected, it pretty much just displays links to info about
this record. Anyway, it’s pretty enjoyable atmospheric drum’n’bass. “Route R” has breaks that are intensely chopped without being abrasive and harsh. “Mind Expander” starts with tunneling Amens signaling some rough paths ahead, but it actually sails pretty smoothly after that. “Frostbite” is where the heavy, choppy Amens come in, but they’re clipped and sort of flexible instead of barreling down like a steamroller, so there’s some swing to them which makes the track a bit more fun.
April 1, 2023 at 10:20 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
XV: On the Creekbeds on the Thrones LP
Free punk trio
XV sound like a secret club that has its own codes and customs — rules don’t apply here. All of its recordings and performances are a glimpse into a strange alternate subset of reality, so it might take several listens or lots of reflection to adjust and make sense of it. Even still, there’s a lot of direct, isolated moments that say something as raw and plainly as possible, and it’s hard not to take notice of them. “Still Interested” is a vibey intro with Emily Roll’s echo-drenched vocals giving a mock dialogue attempting to explain that lack of current activity and socialization doesn’t mean lack of interest. Roll’s work as Haunted has touched on themes like this before, and I know I need to be more considerate when it feels like my friends don’t want to talk to me or hang out anymore. There’s other deeper, more contemplative tracks here, like “The Art”, but then others seem more about coming up with a clever or ear-catching idea and just going with it, like “Tasmanian Angels”. “Fresh Lettuce” starts off as a groove-driven appreciation of clean produce, then takes off as more echo and distortion covers everything and it becomes an excited, swooping dub-punk chant. “No Touching” is a more bassline-driven indie rock tune that repeats the statement “mornings are hard”. “Funkyconomy” is like no wave Shaggs, with a jagged bassline, wailing sax, crashing drums, and the repeated phrase “I wanna live in a funkyconomy” all united in their aggressive drive, but not aligned rhythmically. After “Pen” (“I need a pen to write things down”), the album returns to spoken word songs with the darker, Claire Cirocco-voiced “Cards” and then an appreciation for “Fruit” (especially apples) which actually seems to be more about telling someone to stop talking. “I Won’t Tell” is a loose burner which repeats its title (reinforcing the vibe of secrecy this band gives off), getting lost in a daze before bursting into noisy howling before the tape suddenly shuts off.
March 31, 2023 at 6:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
bagel fanclub: how are your cars driving?
This
recent Bandcamp find is about as breezy and joyous as breakcore gets while still being messy and cathartic and destructive. The easiest comparison I can think of is Datach’i circa
Wearealwayswellthankyou, and this delivers that sort of late ’90s drill’n’bass flavor through a more modern internet filter. Fans of Blipvert and Wolff Parkinson White will be into this, and probably stuff like Nanoray too, but this is nothing at all like atmospheric d’n’b anime-core. This is a self-driving car that goes fast enough to outrun the cops every time, causes a whirlwind of fiery destruction, and magically keeps the passenger safe and snug. It’s cutesy chiptune IDM, bulldozing power noise, disruptive gabber/speedcore, and hyperspeed cartoon music all at once. Five Star Hotel mastered this, and it’s on the same level of intensely hyped-up fury. Magnificent, one of the highlights of the first quarter of 2023.
March 30, 2023 at 9:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Balance: Conjure
Pianist Michael Malis and saxophonist Marcus Elliot developed and recorded
these pieces together in the first month of 2020, and the Trinosophes-associated Two Rooms Records released it late last year. Alternating between Malis and Elliot compositions before ending with a Lawrence Williams piece, the album encompasses several different moods, with the musicians sometimes playing harmoniously, and other times seeming more confrontational. Two significant guest artists push the musicians even further. The opening title track features the brick-hard poetry of Chace Morris, who returns on the more patient but no less stern “Serpent’s Serpent”. The other guest is master drummer Gerald Cleaver, who helps steer the ambitious, fractured “MRA” through its various movements, and helps give the exhilarating “Number Four” its swing. The remainder are just Elliot and Malis. Both of them follow angular paths during “Leap Year”, but occasionally one takes off and flies. Malis drives the train during “9-24”, but both players are in perfect formation. The longest piece, “Possible Futures”, hangs on Malis’ extended notes, which sometimes hang weightless, which Elliot contrasts by switching to bass clarinet. At times it’s easy to think there’s a deep, bowed string instrument being played. Both the artist and album couldn’t have been more accurately named.
March 25, 2023 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Rasmus Birk: Cult of Rasmus
Affiliated with Applesauce Tears and Black Cottage Records,
Rasmus Birk is an Atlanta-based cut-and-paste electronic group, and apparently some sort of cult. They seem to prefer pinching samples from old films, maybe even educational ones, so their music has this out-of-time quality. “This Is Your Focus Leader” is a celebratory opener filled with gleeful horns and guitar riffs. “Sop the Droplet” unexpectedly begins with gospel pianos, then eventually adds slap bass and distorted, smeared beats. “Sunshine Casual” is a gorgeous chillout track, with bird chirps and sighing vocals complementing the dreamy beats. “Wolfie” does in fact featuring a wolf howling, starting out with a fun, freewheeling first half and then spacing out for the second. “Babette Becomes a Burden” has an ear-catching sample (“I said, I’m not hard to look at!”) and swells of dubby horns. “Down and Baroque” has a curious combination of black-and-white old movie samples and slow, squishy beats. “Head and Breakfast” seems to try its hardest to play around with your head, chopping up a sample about playing a while after supper and before bed over queasy synths. “Creeping Jenny” is a long, multi-part journey involving a mysterious long distance call, and it has a heart-warming ending. “Her Name Was Funky Bundle” is based around a minor conflict between a couple; the repeated “I’m no freak!” sample near the end is what gets me. “Confetti and Meet Halls” starts out uncertain, then loses itself at the disco. Finally, “The Feedback Rhythm” moves sideways with erratic riffs and nervous synth sequences.
March 19, 2023 at 1:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Illusion of Safety: Organ Choir Drone
is edited down from hours of material recorded by Daniel Burke, including his first Eurorack modular synthesizers recordings, used for a performance with Shen Wei Dance Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. “Children of the Fear and Light” is where to start if you’re interested in hearing modular synths at their gnarliest, and it matches its title with swarming movements that bring to mind a giant radioactive insect monster from an old sci-fi movie, plus there’s the faint sound of chattering children near the end. “Organic Pistons” seems to be where the album title comes from, as it’s just a really beautiful, almost sacred-sounding organ piece. “Waste of Civilization” contains piercing, high-pitched frequencies throughout much of it, as well as scrambled masses of radio-transmitted voices, but much of the other synth work is more peaceful, so it ends up somewhere between serenity and confusion. “Black Helicopters” appropriately starts out with violently shredding/chopping distortion, then flows through various amounts of disorienting buzzing and droning, as well as gentler guitar manipulations that subtly trick the mind. “Groundswell Horns” is the longest track, at 19 minutes, and it starts out with some more higher frequencies and desolate wandering. Some slight glitching, rustling, and clicking emerges, making it feel like things are barely holding together and on the verge of collapse. The rest of the piece is a very slow, gradual build, bubbling and shifting until everything starts moving faster and more forcefully, drilling into the core at the very end. Once that’s achieved, there’s little else that can be done, so the brief finale “Blackout” is two minutes of a faint, sickly gnawing feeling until everything expires.
March 18, 2023 at 2:58 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Death Factory: Vol. 3
contains four lengthy pieces by Chicago’s Michael Krause from a decade or two ago. This is bludgeoning death industrial that you just stare into the face of as it slowly consumes you. Opener “Manifestation of Fear (3rd Version)” is truly mesmerizing, the distortion just permeates your consciousness and the slow thudding fully draws you in. Then it turns into this sort of bleary horror carnival spectacle, and ends with a demonic jumpscare. “Feasting on Fear” is more of a cinematic junkyard soundscape that gets more scorched as it goes on. “…More Disturbing American Foreign Policies” applies some pretty mind-frying effects to a looped sample about Cambodia, presumably from a documentary or news broadcast. Finally, “Prophecy” is a massive, nearly half hour swarm that gets into some harsher, more piercing tones than the other pieces, but spaces out its more overwhelming moments.
February 12, 2023 at 9:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Applesauce Tears: Artifacts
from Atlanta’s Applesauce Tears adds more of a post-punk edge to their synth-heavy psychedelia, particularly on the opening track, “Dressed for Fortress”, with its commanding, driving bassline. “It’s Us Against the World (It Always Has Been)” sounds familiar, like it’s the theme to a teen drama I haven’t seen in ages. “Eurasian Girlfriend” is a distant, jazzy reflection and “Her Purse Falls and Everything Scatters” switches from clicky IDM-style rhythm to a more aggressive post-rock gale. “It Was God While It Lasted” is one of the more relaxed, breezy selections here, but “When Sleep Spoke to Hera” is a tense track that starts with slow, crawling trap beats and wispy, shivering synths, then explodes with flair and color later on. “The Wam Ebrace of a Mediocre Poet” is a further fusion of jazz noir, trappy drum machines, and gnarled guitar riffs. “Bent Like Winter Grass” is a truly pretty, gauzy song enhanced with strings, and “Another Piece of the Puzzle Goes Missing” retains strings but slathers then on top of a more of a late ’90s-style funky electronic beat, which would be fit for a movie trailer without them. “The Way We Weren’t” is more of a good-time jam with siren synths, ethereal vocals, and I think maybe even some slide guitar.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 