August 7, 2020 at 6:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Octavcat: Arbourne
Mysterious U.K. artist Octavcat isn’t a new name by any means (
Discogs lists several releases dating back to 2003) but
this is my first exposure to their work. It’s the type of braindance which would be at home on post-Rephlex labels like Central Processing Unit, constructing sturdy electro beats and spiking them with acid-tinged melodies. Some of it gets weirder, with Autechre glitches riddling the trippy “Otheracid”, and while “Charcoal” seems to walk the line between danceable and chillable, there’s still some remote flashes of noisy fury. “Wrong’n'” has funny, ear-tickling synths wibbling atop its smooth-Drexciya beats, and “Polygonpad” is closer to trip-hop, with vocoders over crunchy midtempo beats (yeah, it does sound a bit like BoC). Mostly slick and not too hard-edged, this sounds like it was made for cruising through a virtual neon galaxy.
August 4, 2020 at 5:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Philip D Kick: As We Continue 12″ EP
Somehow only the second vinyl release from Om Unit’s Philip D Kick alias,
As We Continue adds a bit more oldschool techno to the project’s juke/jungle fusion. “Drips” is a choppy, wobbly treat which slightly nods to the Prodigy, and “160909313” combines a whole bunch of my favorite things in one track, ramping Detroit techno up to juke tempo without resembling ghettotech. “Funk 160” does much the same thing to smooth, mid-’90s drum’n’bass, like Adam F or Wax Doctor, but with some unexpected frizziness thrown in as the track winds on. “Summer Moods” sounds like a junglistic version of DJ Rashad at his most uplifting, and would be an easy winner at any parties we would normally be enjoying this season. After the more yearning “The Riviera”, “Clouds” seems to stare up at the vast, blue sky and summon an uncountable number of unspoken questions, with little more than an electro-ish beat, drifting pads, and minimal melodies.
August 3, 2020 at 6:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
River Spirit: Constant Lullaby
Detroit trio River Spirit follow up last year’s excellent
Me I Fall full-length with the shorter, more intimate
Constant Lullaby. While 2018’s
EP 2 flirted with trip-hop and electro-pop, and
Me I Fall had some of the group’s jazziest, most sophisticated material, this one feels a bit more direct, even with a few brief, abstract interludes. “Constant Lullaby” has scratchy alt-rock guitars which drive the lonesome refrain “and it ain’t no party without you”. After the moody instrumental “Deeper Fantasy”, which features dark shades of bells behind its tricky guitar and drum rhythm, “Let It All Go” is a more easygoing but still slightly anxious ode to a promised rendezvous. The dreamy sway of “Don’t Look Back” segues into “Agency”, which has a similar mood but more tightly wound vocals, and “Crooked Wonder” has more of a contrast between moments which flow with release and choppier, more aggressive elements. Tapes have yet to ship out, but this fine release is available to stream now.
August 1, 2020 at 12:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Fugitive Pieces
has a pretty astonishing catalog of breaks, algorave, IDM, grime, lo-fi, post-punk weirdness, and much more. This new
10-track comp doesn’t appear to have any particular theme, it’s just creative material from across the label’s roster and beyond. Etch starts things off splendidly with some steady but choppy jungle breaks and bumping bass. Brain Rays & Quiet (easily the label’s duo to watch right now) have some fun making a sort of atmospheric ghettotech track out of a CupcakKe sample. Viennese legend Stereotyp goes hard with a tough ragga-grime riddim, and newcomer Drumskull (review of his new album forthcoming) references oldskool breakbeat hardcore tropes but does something entirely different with them; it’s punchier, more angular, ruffer. Ice_Eyes’ remarkable “Silk01d” is a jagged, prismatic futurescape which seems like it’s crushing itself, yet it’s still sort of funky and almost melodic. Maybe those aren’t really the best ways to describe it, but it does the mutilated Autechre glitch thing while still sounding like it’s a breathing creature. Under-recognized glitch-breaks veteran ScanOne comes correct with the tense but jumpy “Breeze”. The mysterious Sentry resurrects an offbeat, kind of antsy techno gem from an obscure 12″ released by a Slovakian label 4 years ago. The rest of the tracks drift away from breaks and club sounds to more abstract lo-fi textures. Warp alumni REQ surrounds samples about robot superheroes (“We need more power! We must bring safety to the universe!”) with clanky, fizzing beats and bubbles, and Ekoplekz works his usual radiophonic industrial dub magic. The comp ends with brooding selection from SDEM, whose recent double cassette on the label follows releases on Opal Tapes and CPU last year.
July 28, 2020 at 5:40 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Kentaro Minoura: 今戸焼
seems to be far more prolific as a visual artist than a musician; he’s had dozens of exhibitions of his work since 2006, and has published several books. His
fourth album mainly consists of heavy rhythmic studies, with the first track focusing entirely on craggy drum machine tones, then the next few venturing into distorted lo-fi techno. After the grinding, festering dystopia of “言問橋”, “吾妻橋” is pure panic-zone acid terror, calling like an alarm from inside a reactor. Then “イチカワヤ” is a glorious 13-minute wooze-fest that absolutely bumps, getting grander and more smeared by the minute. The last three tracks are much shorter (the bristling “駒形橋” is only 13 seconds), and the ending feels like an energy-depleted lament compared to the danger-filled antics of the earlier ones. Really unique, uncommon sounds and inventive beat design here.
July 21, 2020 at 6:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Evicshen: Hair Birth
I’m only reviewing a digital promo of
this, but the now sold-out special edition included a speaker cover, in the form of a coil which plays when connected to an amplifier and placed in front of a magnet. (A few of the covers are still available, but without an amp). The artist, Victoria Shen, used to work for Jessica Rylan’s Flower Electronics, and she created the LP by recording Buchla 100 and Serge modular synths at Harvard, then editing the recordings together. The results are crafted like academic electronic compositions, but sound as visceral as a junky basement noise session. “Under the Stall Door” is 8 minutes of righteous thrashing which occasionally erupts into high-pitched screeing feedback, then plunges back into low rumbling and quaking or harsh crushing. “Funhouse Mirror Stage” scrambles glitchy modular tones and dissolves them in molten lava, while “Lissjous” seems to imply a brittle, trampled-over rhythm. “Fever Pitch” is fizzier, and even closer to a stammering, frenzied rhythm. The whole album just sounds so LIVE, even though it’s the result of countless hours of studio sessions, and I hope I get the opportunity to see this artist perform someday.
July 20, 2020 at 6:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Matthewdavid’s Mindflight: Care Tracts
Returning to his healing music project, Leaving Records founder
Matthewdavid produces three 10-minute pieces designed to bring purely positive energy. Adorned with two cute dolphins on the cover and sounding just as friendly, the album spirals in an unhurried flow, shimmering like a vast, peaceful pool that cleanses and keeps you calmly afloat. Curiously, though, the pieces end with the tape drastically being slowed down or sped up, putting a definite stop to periods of relaxation which could seemingly on perpetually. All three tracts serve different purposes and have different characteristics. “Tract of Hidden Animalia” is awash with synthetic chirps and flutters, while “Tract of Gentle Healing” is almost aggressively rejuvenating, and “Tract of Bell & Flute Magic” is a playful acoustic incantation set atop a briskly flowing stream.
July 19, 2020 at 11:40 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
G.S. Sultan: music for a living water
Roy Werner writes custom Max/MSP software and makes semi-generative compositions which flow between digital and organic textures. Opening with rushing water and fluttering bird wings,
music for a living water weaves melty vocals, which sometimes sound like they’re being manipulated on a turntable, with vibraphone-like melodies and subtle glitches and buzzes. It’s too _together_ to merely sound like an audio collage, but it still has an easy, surreal drift to it. It’s definitely more easygoing and pleasant than some of the more future-shocked Orange Milk releases, but there’s also moments that tip into the realm of the absurd, like when several layers of vocals of various pitches collate into a heavy, quavering blanket mass during “nx nox”. The last 2 tracks are weird co-minglings of new age choral R&B, wrapping several shades of vocals around a ticking music box flow.
July 18, 2020 at 3:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Music For Your Mind Vol.1
I think
this is the last of the benefit comps I downloaded recently. This one’s from Lobster Theremin, and all profits are donated to
Black Minds Matter. Haven’t delved too much into this label and its extended family, at least as of late, and the only artists I’m familiar with here are Borai, Denham Audio, and Tim Reaper, all of whom are some of the absolute finest producers making rave and jungle today. The first two collide rave elements with harder, garage-y beats, and Reaper’s is a slow burning but ecstatic jungle track filled with intricate breaks and contemplative synths. Route 8 & TRP’s “This Way” is another highlight, making a complex beat pattern go down smoothly. Mani Festo’s “The Fate of Us All” similarly resembles a sort of danceable IDM with a heartbreaking melody and poignant sample. Much more playful is the bloopy, choppy garage of Checan’s “BLAES”. Artists like L.O.T.S. and Slim Steve provide breaky beats and chill house atmospheres, while Night Foundation’s “Breathless” is an unsettling nocturnal tremor. Snow Bone’s “DYNA” is excellent futuristic rave overkill, and Zeno Amsel’s “Pertinent Negative” is hotwired electro-techno madness. Music for your mind, for sure, but only because we aren’t allowed back in clubs yet.
July 17, 2020 at 6:04 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Hot Steel
Nina Kraviz’s трип (Trip Recordings) released
this compilation on Juneteenth, donating all of its sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The album stemmed from a live stream which took place in May, in which artists submitted unreleased material, of any genre. The favorite tracks were signed, and issued on this album. Detroit’s First Lady, K-HAND, starts it off with “Aquatics”, a dramatic piece which sounds like the opening scene of a seabound thriller, filled with rushing tidal water and cyclical strings. There’s no telling where the release is going to head from there. LUCKER’s “Headache vs. Corona” is a tense jumble of fuzz-saturated breaks and early ’90s house stabs, managing to dance its way out of the muddle. Locked Groove dives into deep trance territory with “Intergalactic Surfer”, setting airy arpeggios and measured strings atop cruising beats. Hieroglyphic Being works his industrial house magic with the gorgeous keys, blown-out beats, and booming vocals of “Side 2 Side (Black Hands Version)”. Gesloten Cirkel demolishes the fourth wall (and maybe some of the ceiling) on “Fairness”, starting off with a snarky observer mocking the track he’s been working on, then adopting a scary Darth Vader-type voice and proclaiming “This is the best song ever made! If you can’t hear that, there’s something wrong with you!” before launching into some unruly techno pulverizing. Just as humorous, but in a much cuter, friendlier way, is Crush Converters’ Spanish-language, pogo-worthy synth-pop ode to Nina herself. Sebastian Lopez aka Flug and Voyager Solar System provide more deep-space transmissions (with Voyager’s being a bit fuzzier and trippier), while Baxter’s two-minute “Galore” begins as solemn ambient techno and ends up hyper-detailed, frizzy IDM. “Kreatur” by m.o.d.u.l. machine is a 94-second blitzkrieg of head-bashing hardcore with a vulnerable, pitched-up voice in the center. Nina’s own “x3” is a 9-minute odyssey of bouncy beats, vocoder samples, and antsy-trancey synths. This comp hasn’t received as much attention as other recent benefit releases (probably because of the ongoing backlash against Nina), but it’s certainly worth checking out, as it’s a quality selection of creativity from around the world.
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