July 12, 2019 at 8:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Pas Musique: Phoenix
Pas Musique’s latest mixes several types of rhythms with improvised sounds and vocals. It’s industrial, Krautrock, noise rock, and techno all at the same time, and while it could be overwhelming or messy, it works. There’s a few sampled snippets (including a bit about an electronic brain, and one assuring that you’re among friends), but the actual vocals are all stretched, contorted vocalizations rather than lyrics. You think they’re saying something just outside of your comprehension, but it’s all an illusion. But it still feels like they’re speaking in some sort of code and this is a transmission from a top secret lab somewhere. Not to mention, there’s a song on here called “Miss Globule”, which I assume is a takeoff on a certain Stereolab song, and anyway it’s just fun to say globule.
July 12, 2019 at 7:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
CVN: I.C.
CVN is
Nobuyuki Sakuma, formerly of Jesse Ruins, and this is his second album for Orange Milk. While representative of that label’s hyper-detailed, surrealist output, this is notably more pop-influenced, especially on the opening track, a sweet R&B/rap tune featuring NTsKi. A few tracks have trap or club beats, but there’s also more abstract pieces like “Snippets of Heaven”, which set sporadic glitches and samples against a blank background, similar to Seth Graham and other Orange Milk artists. “Local Pain” is more wistful and has some smooth waiting-room guitars. “Zen of Equilibrium” is sort of relaxed, spring garden techno, while “Ikasama” has harder beats without getting too aggressive, then switches to a more dramatic beatless section during the second half. Throughout the album, CVN’s productions are intenselt designed, but there’s always enough human feeling so that it doesn’t sound too clinical.
July 12, 2019 at 6:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Kompromat: Traum Und Existenz
Vitalic’s “Poney Part 1” is an all-time goth-rave classic, but most of the stuff he’s done since that first single hasn’t really been quite as exciting. However, this first album from his duo with Rbk Warrior is electrifying. Very solid dark electro-pop with French and German vocals, alternating between hard stompers and a few slower, dreamier tunes. The more pumped-up tracks absolutely bang, particularly “Herztod”, which I can’t get enough of. Check that one out if nothing else, but the whole album is really well done.
July 10, 2019 at 4:39 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Ben Hall & Don Dietrich: Tiger Swallow Tail LP
Detroit percussionist Ben Hall and free jazz/noise improv legend Don Dietrich (Borbetomagus) divert from New Monuments (their trio with C. Spencer Yeh) for their second album as a duo. This is two 15-minute sidelong improvisations, and they’re both absolutely fantastic. The first side is a constant rush of tumbling drums and frantic sax which blurts, squeals, and squiggles. Side B gets even better, as Dietrich plugs his horn into a bunch of juiced-up distortion pedals, and basically duets with himself, trading off solos that alternately sound like razor-sharp guitars and harsh noise bludgeoning. Hall is there thrashing away in the background, carrying it all along in some sort of haphazard manner. It’s just incredible. Viciously recommended.
July 7, 2019 at 6:10 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Grave Nature: Ascending
Former WCBN DJ Chris Matthews plays in the dream pop group Distant Creatures, but here he branches out with his instrumental project Grave Nature. This is vast, deep stuff filled with strings, guitars, synths, acoustic percussion, and even power tools. It’s somewhere between Barn Owl and Stars of the Lid — dark and doomy but not exactly approaching metal, with space rock and neo-classical influences. The album was built over 2 years from several sessions (some improvised), and it’s so layered and detailed. Just witness the subliminal voices buried underneath “Ephemeris”, or the way “Azimuth” erupts into noisy storm clouds. But then there’s more delicate moments, like the pianos on “Barco” and “Pale Blue Dot”. “Twin-Bodies” is where it gets a bit cosmic, but not quite in the same way as every band in the last decade who tried to sound like Tangerine Dream — this sounds more like blasting off into space using a rocket assembled in someone’s back yard. “Plotting One’s Course” is mellower and sways to the rhythm of hand drums. “Aligning Instruments to Astral Coordinates” is one final convergence of strings, horn, and heavenly feedback. CD and download available from
Bandcamp.
July 4, 2019 at 2:14 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Huey Mnemonic: EP 12″
Flint’s O’Shay Mullins surfaces on Vanity Press with a four-track EP of varying moods and styles. “Healing Chamber” is the type of light, skittery electro track that sounds both underwater and up in orbit, bubbling and gliding with equal ease. “Hydrocity” is more braindance-y electro-techno, with a nice subdued yet sharp melody, and it’s over and out without causing much of a fuss. “Vibrations Radio”, however, isn’t about to let anyone pass without getting down and enjoying themselves. Breaks, banging rhythms, energetic vocal samples, a piano/string breakdown — it’s all here, what else do you need? “Emissary” is just pure joy, with bright, springy bass notes and those 808 State loon sounds, nailing that late ’80s/early ’90s sound without sounding like a pointless rehash pastiche (of course, that type of sound is more up-to-date than it has been since it was brand new). Fantastic, beautiful stuff.
July 1, 2019 at 11:51 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Koeosaeme: Obanikeshi
This release appeals to the part of me that loves Orange Milk for their works by hyperrealist composers like Noah Creshevsky and Seth Graham, and the part of me that loves the label for releasing noisy glitchcore like Machine Girl and Julien. Absolute headrush intensity which splices manic classical instruments, disgruntled splurts, and sickly distortion. It is grotesque and nightmarish, and it should be hard to take in all at once, yet I can’t get enough of it. The first few tracks are an overwhelming passage of slash-and-grab classical glitch. “Meat Texture” basically sounds like what it would be like to be stuck on the surface of an ocean made of meat. Then tracks like “Synched” (featuring atnr) are like an entire A/V room exploding into fireworks. “X / Z” (featuring EL Murki) is the closest this comes to breakcore, with rapid, menacing hyper-beats and aggressively focused rhythms. A few moments of relative calm shine through, particularly on “Imiaru”, but even these are interrupted by violent chopping sounds and screeching strings. Absolutely jawdropping work.
June 30, 2019 at 3:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Flora FM: Chaos Light EP 12″
Flora FM continues his winning streak from last year with one of two new records for 2019. “Hallucinogenic Worm” is a mellow, driving May/Saunderson type of track with some strange mumbling voices buried underneath, and “Chrome Grass” is a little quirkier and choppier but still feels more excited than nervous. “Storm Cleaned”, however, is the business. Exactly the type of heavy breaks and fluid, fluorescent synths that made his Vanity Press record so special. “Insist On You (Brain Mix)” is filled with cute robot noises and springy, chimey sounds, as well as filtered beats moving everything through the tunnel.
June 30, 2019 at 3:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Davis Galvin: EP 12″
This EP has one of those opening tracks that’s hard to get past. “All Night Long” starts out a bit fragmented and tentative, but then crystalline trills and lush “everything’s gonna be fine” synths trickle in, along with flickering amen breaks and ray-of-sunshine vocals. It seems wrong to suggest that Vanity Press has a “sound”, but this is exactly the type of high-quality feelgood club banger the label regularly puts out. “Return from the Sky” is significantly darker, with killer bass and a UFO documentary melody over intense, pressurized breaks. “Bass-Biology Interface” starts out eerie and warped but gets friendlier, and it seems to rapidly ping through the air with a grin on its face. “Loudspeaker Situation” is just perfect summer music, with heavy, shuffling breakbeats and super gorgeous synths that just feel like the sun shining on your face. “Waterbody” seems way more detached, but the 4/4 thump keeps it from completely floating away.
June 24, 2019 at 10:37 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Charles Trees: 2019 12″ EP
Charles Trees’
newest EP arrives on Shigeto’s Portage Garage Sounds, and it’s another scorching set of forward-thinking dance tracks fit for multiple occasions. “Got No” is a fast, hypercharged boogie track with a sophisticated bassline and choppy vocals, filled with minute details. “Think First” has a more direct, booming kick drum with jazzy snares/cymbals, and it builds suspense and just gets deeper and deeper. “In Arms” cruises along with dubby chords and swift, electro-ish beats, and has a bit of an off-the-ground feeling. “Acja (Club Mix)” is a steady acid-ish house cut with saxophone playing by Marcus Elliot which starts out subtle and harmonic before calmly blooming later on. Elliot doesn’t hog the spotlight, though, his playing gently rides the rhythm and adds to the track’s sunny atmosphere.
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