The Answer Is In The Beat

Variant: Vortexual [Element Seven] (Echospace [Detroit], 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 9:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

So I’ve reviewed one of Variant’s many recent releases on this blog before, and I basically said that while he certainly sticks to a certain sound (and yes, his albums can tend to sound like variations on each other), some of them hit harder than others. This one is definitely another one that just devastates. It’s very washed out ambient dub techno, but there’s just such a sense of despair and lost-ness to this one. There’s also beats, and they pump away like you’d expect from dub techno, but they seem to barely puncture through the thick waves rather than becoming the central focus. Seriously, this is deep as hell. I don’t want to get out. Get lost on Bandcamp. And yes, it blips out for a second about three minutes in, that’s just how it happened because this was a live one-take recording and it couldn’t be edited out.

Whetzel: Beatology Volume I (self-released, 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 9:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

James Whetzel plays dozens of instruments and has explored soundtracks and world fusion with his many releases. Here, he begins a study of hip-hop beats. He plays around with placing the kicks and snares in unexpected places. He also uses instruments not usually associated with hip-hop like accordion, dholak, and sarod. The more off-base it gets, the more original it sounds (such as tracks 3, 4, 7, and 9). Pretty neat! Available on Bandcamp.

Marek Hemmann: Moments (Freude Am Tanzen Recordings, 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 9:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Third album from a German techno dude. He doesn’t stick to typical 4/4 beat patterns, sometimes there’s a slumped-down garage beat, as on the first track, and other times there’s light breakbeats or other details to the rhythms. Also, this dude loves melodies. The melodies are bright and sparkly, and they progress nicely. These are dance tracks, and they’re instrumental, but they’re still songs. It gets kind of bright and dramatic without sounding like trance or progressive house. It’s bright and cheerful, but there’s a hint of melancholy to it. “Ginger” is the one most likely to get stuck in your head. “Comonia” is a little more uptempo than the rest. All of it is pretty good.

STAR: Devastator (Lovely Rebel Records, 2007/reissued by Saint Marie Records, 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 9:03 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Reissue of a one-off album by a shoegaze group featuring Scott Cortez of Lovesliescrushing. It’s definitely not as weird or experimental as that band. The songs here are mostly around 2 minutes each, and they have heavy, noisy, trippy guitar effects and ethereal vocals and distorted beats. Not a major lost classic, but if you’re into shoegaze, it’s pretty damn good.

Sankt Otten + N: Männerfreundschaften Und Metaphysik (Denovali Records, 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 9:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Sankt Otten have released over a dozen albums/EPs since 1999, but that’s nothing compared to N, who has about four dozen, apparently. Both artists are pretty hard to keep up with (especially N, my god). I’ve heard Sankt Otten described as trip-hop, but that must apply to their earlier stuff, because this is far from that league. This is a series of eight lengthy improvisations, which tend to be dark and noisy. “Massiere die Maschine” is a lengthy Krautrock thriller, which heads straight into the heart of despair with its motorik rhythm and rustling guitars and pianos. “Manchmal Schmeckt Nichtmal Der Kaffee” is more of a slow, weary crawl through an endless dark tunnel with no indication of an exit. “Auf Drei Lassen Wir Los”… so bleak and doomy, but not at all doom metal. Creeping nightmare soundtrack. “Milchmädchen Und Herrenschokolade” seems like it might be looking upward, somewhat. Then “Diese Bessere Welt Ist Auch Nicht Besser” is just cold and unforgiving. Magnificent album.

Morlox: Alien Death Strike/Public cassingle + Remixes cdr (Backwards Records, 2016)

December 4, 2016 at 8:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

So Denver-based Pat Urn (Syphilis Sauna) is now going by the name Morlox. He released an album called Join The… earlier this year, and two of the songs are on a cassingle (!) and a ton of remixes are available. “Alien Death Strike” is a fast, blippy breakcore/chiptune-ish song, and “Public” is a sly, creepy tune with alien-sounding vocals about wanting to do perverted things in public, and it’s surrounded by rapidly shuffling hyper-breaks. The synth chords drift slowly but the beats are fast and skittery. From these two songs, there’s over a dozen remixes. The first 2 mixes crush the songs to bits, but D/SIR’s mix heads to the goth club. Church Fire’s mix has quick, hammering beats, but also a more relaxed droney middle part. Kristachuwan’s version has some pumping beats, but it’s way more abstract and spaced out, with distant, echoing voices and smudgy synths. Technicolor Yawn focuses on the dilapidated, obliterated beat shards, while Jared Pfalmer turns “Public” into an industrial metal rager. Also, some guy named Qixoni is on here too. Do the Bandcamp thing.

Kindohm: Zero Likes (naboamusic, 2016)

November 20, 2016 at 11:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This is post-social music. This is music for constantly checking social media and receiving no new notifications. This is music for putting your entire life into something and never being sure if anyone is paying attention to what you’re doing. This is music for wondering if there’s some sort of faulty algorithm causing your posts or messages to go unseen or unread. This is music for holding back on saying something because you don’t want to make anyone feel unpleasant, but then rarely ever saying anything. This is music for making you seriously question if you should delete or at least take a very long break from social media. This is music for vaguebooking. This is music for hating memes, and pop culture in general. This is music for getting sick of impersonal business-related emails from people who don’t know you or care about how you feel. This is music for hating small talk but not knowing how to make a meaningful connection with anyone. This is music for having it make all the difference when someone actually does take interest, and being convinced that there is a reason you’re doing all of this. This album was produced using live coding and is a free download from naboamusic. And it’s amazing.

Evil Robot Ted: Project Iceworm Volume One (Brokecore, 2016)

November 20, 2016 at 11:16 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Far different from Evil Robot Ted’s more DHR-influenced work, this is a vivid album of decaying ambient/noise/rave loops. It’s silly to really call this ambient, as it’s so pumped up with crackling distortion. But he takes ambient synth pads you might associate with jungle tracks and fries them up until they’re smoking, and then loops them and phases them and pans them and adds additional mind-bleaching effects. Yes, we’ve heard the Lee Gambles of the world do “faded memories of jungle breakdowns but without the breakbeats” thing before, but this is different. There is a hazy nostalgia thing to it, but it’s more than that. It’s frazzled and hallucinatory and not forgiving or comfortable, but yet there’s still an unrestrained joy to it. A couple remixes near the end add beats, and they’re clever and complicated, but still not overwhelming and harsh. This is one of many remarkable ERT releases, and lucky for anyone who’s interested, it is a free download at Bandcamp!

DeLIEN: User Interface Rmx tape (Detroit Industrial/Void, 2016)

November 20, 2016 at 11:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Last year, DeLIEN released an incredible tape called Identity Annex. This tape gathers a bunch of remixes of one of the tracks, and it tears the track apart in tons of different directions. The insanely talented Redhat from Philadelphia does some sort of opera/breakcore/Biggie mashup thing. Selector Catalogue’s mix is typically restless and explosive, but there is a short pause in the middle to reflect. Baseck’s is a bit more low-down and wompy, but there’s a ton of voices buried underneath, as well as some acid synths. Chris Samuels does a more straightforward industrial mix. Split Horizon slices it to bits with his twitchy, stammering version. Once you’ve listened to the original tape, check out this one on Bandcamp.

Dylan Cameron: Infinite Floor LP (HoloDeck, 2016)

November 20, 2016 at 10:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I have tons of promos sitting around on my hard drive that I keep meaning to review, and usually if I just don’t get around to something after a while, I just end up deleting it and moving on. I wanted to make sure I covered this one though, simply because the artist in question doesn’t get as much attention as some of his labelmates on HoloDeck, and also because this album is really good. It’s far closer to the dance music world than most other releases on the label, but it’s still nowhere near a conventional techno album. The tracks here are heavily atmospheric, yet still grounded with strong rhythms. Opener “Nebula” is an explosive jungle-ish track that seems to be bursting out of some sort of existential mind-trap. Other tracks are more subdued and rainy, but they still poke their heads out of the storm clouds and find a way to dance. This album is an exceptional fusion of optimism and melancholy that doesn’t resort to any of the “future” cliches present in much contemporary dance music. Check it out on Bandcamp.