April 24, 2016 at 7:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Housemeister: Transfer tape
Housemeister’s last album
OP-1 was made entirely on a tiny old sampler that may as well be a toy. What could’ve been a gimmick actually turned out to be a really fun, creative album. His newest release is a hardware-only album which sounds totally different, it’s more downtempo, reflective IDM. Some of it gets sinister and a bit noisy (“Sternenwind”). Other tracks are like Kraftwerk-y electro, but a bit more roughed-up and growly (“We Are Data”). “Multiversum” is kind of both, but prettier. Definitely not what I expected after his last album, but it looks like all his albums are different and leaps in other directions. Quite impressive, this.
April 19, 2016 at 6:20 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Tessellations
The ever-intriguing Houndstooth label celebrates its 50th release with a compilation featuring new music from all of its artists so far. The first disc seems to be geared toward the label’s more abstract, downtempo, and vocal-driven side. Snow Ghosts and Soft As Snow (no relation, although Snow Ghosts is related to Throwing Snow, who also make an appearance) have the most dramatic vocal tracks, while Guy Andrews’ track is stunning, dark, and cinematic. Just steer clear of the 18+ track because, well, it’s really not good. The second disc is far more dancey, starting with a Detroit-esque track from House of Black Lanterns (who formerly recorded industrial dubstep on Ninja Tune as King Cannibal). The Akkord track is dark, evil jungle, and it’s amazing. Special Request’s track is faster darkside jungle; it’s not quite as in-your-face but it’s just as much of a headrush. The rest of the tracks are more straightforward techno, and they’re pretty decent. _Unsubscribe_ is an awesome band name (it’s actually a project of U.K. techno/electro veteran Dave Clarke), and their track is fast and frantic. The comp ends with a slower, dirty acid track from Marquis Hawkes, who uses the “I can’t stop” sample Moby sampled two decades ago for the track “Why Can’t It Stop?” released under the name Lopez.
April 19, 2016 at 5:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
MM Studio: Good Star Dubs
Recorded in Berlin in 2007 but unreleased until now, this is a dubwise collaboration between Ann Arbor’s Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye, JTC, SK-1, etc.) and Bus member Daniel Meteo (who also runs Shitkatapult and Albumlabel). This is tripped-out digital dub modeled after ’80s dancehall rhythms and given wacky Mad Professor-like delay effects. Wicked basslines which expand and burst in a storm of echo, all set to metronomic rhythms programmed on acid house drum machines. Two of the tracks on here are presented in alternate mixes, and all of these tracks seem to draw from the same sound palette, so it doesn’t stray too much from its sound. I have no complaints about that, though; this is a type of music I can listen to for hours on end and not get sick of. “Digidubx” is 16 minutes long and I wouldn’t have a problem if it took up the entire album. The briefest track, “Other Dub Mix II”, sticks in a 4/4 beat and comes a little closer to the dub-techno of Basic Channel, but the halftime snare keeps it in the dub realm. “Dub 100” is faster and has some heavily vocodered vocals. A couple tracks near the end throw in some scratchy guitar licks. Sweet album, definitely worth the decade-long wait it took for these tracks to finally see release.
April 15, 2016 at 5:46 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Thousand Foot Whale Claw: Cosmic Winds tape
This Austin-based group shares members with Troller and S U R V I V E, and while in some ways they seem like they’re somewhere between the two, they’re really on another plane entirely. I saw them at a Holodeck Records showcase at SXSW once, and it felt like a different band was taking the stage for every track. There’s dark, atmospheric soundtrack-like pieces, but also pulsating arpeggio drone and airy post-Hillage guitar psych explorations. This tape is much the same, it inhabits a lot of spaces and it does everything splendidly. “Cosmic Winds The Song” is a 10-minute early highlight, but then there’s the noisy rift of “Dark Mote” and then the lighter, more vibrant “Cassini”. “Hyugens” slips in a motorik machine rhythm, then “Mood Light” is pure tranquility. Seriously impressive tape, and it gets better on repeated listens.
April 12, 2016 at 9:03 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Robert Crouch: A Gradual Accumulation of Ideas Becomes Truth
On this album, sound artist Robert Crouch constructs his slowly developing drones from sounds sourced from modular synthesizers. This album sounds absolutely nothing like most modular synth albums, however. He’s still using digital processes to stretch out and transform the sounds. It creates a sort of intersection where analog roughness and digital glitch collide. “Hohle Fels” is the clearest drone, the others get a lot rougher, and go through more changes. Some of the pieces (such as “3184 Pullman, Costa Mesa, 1974”) seem to develop a sort of trembling rhythm. “Potbelly Hill” is definitely the busiest, it seems to claustrophobically shift rapidly. Even while it feels contained the point of severe restriction, it has a sort of accepting calmness, and seems to hit some bliss-out frequencies along the way.
April 12, 2016 at 8:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Ekin Fil: Heavy tape
“Still Numbers” pulled me in, so I had to check out the rest of
this tape. It’s like Grouper but more windswept, or caught up in a whirlpool. Or even lost down a well. Endlessly echoing vocals and guitars, but with a few cosmic star trails following the voices down. It’s heavy, but not in a way that feels weighted down. It’s heavy with things that are not tangible. In some ways, it’s as dark and suffocating as any noise or metal album you could name. And yet it’s so spacious. Is it possible to be claustrophobic while floating in a cloud? What if it’s a storm cloud? I don’t know, it’s frightening to think about. This album is stunning.
April 9, 2016 at 6:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
DeLIEN: Identity Annex tape
Detroit’s Kirill Slavin has been making kickass hardware-based industrial/breakcore since the ’90s. He hasn’t released much more than a handful of CDs and a 12″ on Low Res, but everything is guaranteed quality. This tape has 4 tracks, some of which are lengthy jams that just blast through ideas excitedly. Opener “Judgement Call” has a steady industrial beat and scattered voices and noise bursts, and it sounds awesome, but “User Interface” is a 12 minute thrill ride through smashed samples and convulsing rhythms. It starts out uptempo and breakcore-ish, but it frequently lapses into halftime electro beats, and keeps frantically skittering and stammering. “How To” has fun adding noise bursts to a children’s story record. Then there’s “Rose Covered Steel”, the tape’s longest, most aggressive, and best cut. It starts out harsh and frenzied, then settles into a sort of demented twitchy techno beat, with plenty of noisy static interruptions. It goes through periods of less and more going on, but it’s still always changing and exciting. Every time it feels like it’s going to settle into a dance groove, it blows up and gets corrupted. And then it just falls to the floor with a thud. Grip it at
Bandcamp.
April 8, 2016 at 9:10 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Form a Log/Moth Cock: split LP
This one’s trouble from the getgo. Form a Log are a weird group which includes Ren Schofield (Container), and they fuse beats with noise, but not in the same way Container does. This is way more playful, silly, and nonsensical. The beats often sound like flimsy toy instruments, and they often break into funny voices, dilapidated samples, acoustic guitars, and other songs entirely. Kind of reminds me of some of the early Tigerbeat6 stuff if it was created with junky electronics and tapes rather than laptops. Lots of squeaks and chatters and big booming bass. Moth Cock’s side is in a similar vein, but with more of a severely topsy-turvy hip-hop bent. Melted easy listening snippets bent into the most absurd breakbeats you can imagine, and then submerged in an overflowing bathtub by mutated horns. Loops never seem to be left alone for more than a few seconds, they’re always pitched up or down or sideways. At one point it sounds like Raymond Scott’s electronic inventions are screaming for dear life as they’re being held hostage by an evil group of wild drums. I feel like this one quite isn’t as intense as the Moth Cock tape I reviewed a few years ago, but it’s still relentlessly weird and amusing. Oh, and there’s cartoon sound effects piled up like used candy wrappers during “Paulus”. Too much.
April 8, 2016 at 8:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
HIDE: Flesh For the Living 12″
HIDE are a Chicago-based duo doing dark industrial synth-pop, but that description could mean anything, and this group covers quite a lot of ground just on this 12″. The title cut is a sizzling, thumping EBM track which sounds like one of Underworld’s more aggressive moments, but with a take-no-bullshit goth-punk diva staring you down. It’s minimal in construction, yet it sounds big and brooding. The remix by WATTS slows the tempo down to a sparse dubstep crawl, but it fills the space with detailed drum fills which sometimes approximate the rattling hi-hats of Southern rap, other times imitating marching band drum cadences. There’s also vocal glitches and crazy synth squirms, with an ominous sci-fi melody tucked into the center of the song. The 11-minute “Limb From Limb” takes up the record’s B-side, and it’s halfway between minimal techno and horror-disco, with an insistent throb covered in washes of echo. Heather Gabel scowls “turn the other cheek, don’t speak” as the track gets more tense. It keeps building up and adding more explosive, disturbing sounds, and then it strips down only to get more scary. A phoned-in paranoid voice talks breathlessly about a murder he had to commit (or at least attempt). After a pregnant pause, the track explodes back into action, and remains aggressive and dread-filled for most of its remainder.
April 7, 2016 at 7:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Fela Ransome Kuti and His Koola Lobitos: Highlife-Jazz and Afro Soul (1963-1969)
Fela Kuti needs no introduction, but the music on this collection introduced him to the music world back in the ’60s, when he lead a group called Koola Lobitos. This is far different than the Afrobeat sound he would invent during the ’70s. While every bit as spirited and lively as the music he would become known for, this is much more light-hearted highlife and jazz (sometimes bordering on calypso), lacking the political fury that would turn him into a cultural icon. This isn’t to discredit the music contained here, as it is highly enjoyable, fun music. The first disc consists of the group’s singles, and they start out highlife for the first 6 tracks, switch to modern jazz for a few songs (with “Amaechi’s Blues” sounding more like American jazz than anything else he’s done), then eventually moving closer to soul with the last 2 tracks. The second disc is the group’s proper studio album, and it focuses on the highlife sound. Disc 3 starts out with a live 10″ the group released in 1966, then concludes with more tracks from singles. The live tracks, as expected, are pure fire. Just super loud and explosive and great. It goes without saying that the fidelity on all these recordings is not state-of-the-art. Some of it’s really distorted and muddy, because a lot of the master tapes simply don’t exist, so they had to be dubbed from ancient, dirty vinyl records. The music absolutely needs to be heard, so I’m assuming most people won’t complain about the fidelity. This collection has been released a few times before, first by Japanese label P-Vine a decade ago, then as 2CD set
Lagos Baby by Vampisoul in 2008; this edition from Knitting Factory Records is the comp’s first American issue.
« Previous Page —
Next Page »
The Answer Is In The Beat 