November 23, 2018 at 8:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Pepper Mill Rondo: A.T.M. tape
Where to even start with this one. This is 100 minutes of Good Willsmith’s Doug and Max collating the entire contents of the internet and spewing it out in jagged, irregularly shaped chunks. A long time ago, there was this website someone told me about that I posted a link to in the Secret Stash section of Foxy Digitalis, that was called something like “Neverending Glitch,” and was something along those lines, somehow harnessing all the websites and live streams and feeds and everything else online and producing a mutated ever-shifting audio-visual glob of everything. I assume it’s long gone, I had it bookmarked once but I assume I got rid of it when the site wasn’t active anymore, but it would make a perfect accompaniment to listening to this tape. It’s an overwhelmingly intense barrage of media soundbites, shreds of everything on the radio or on TV, and lots of drunken karaoke sessions, all supremely glitched and splattered. It’s not entirely random, however. “I’m Sitting In A Room” reconstructs the text of Alvin Lucier’s legendary avant-garde piece using lyrics from pop songs. Some collages focus on specific genres (“I’m A Guy That Makes Classical Music Collages” is self-explanatory, “Pepperoni Stick Is Bout 2 Breakup” regurgitates nu-metal). “Lesser Artists Borrow, Great Artists Vape” is a painstaking, mind-numbing montage of rapidfire references to all things aesthetic,
Eccojams,
Floral Shoppe, and vape pens. “NO MORE FAN MAIL” steamrollers over the Beatles, and “Subscribe or Die” mines videos from Patreon pages, boiling the internet down to a bunch of loud voices begging for your money. Describing something as “everything” is such an over-used cliche, but in this case, not doing so would be selling it short. Doug’s glorious solo effort
These Magical Numbers, consisting entirely of YouTubed renditions of the national anthem played at the same time, was American patriotism at its most purely obnoxious blown up into a harsh noise wall.
E.D.M. (here standing for “Ecstatic Dissonant Mashup”) is another logic-obliterating reflection of our current times. Totally essential.
November 23, 2018 at 5:22 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Colin Potter: The Where House? 2XLP
This is a deluxe reissue of one of the many cassettes Colin Potter released during the early ’80s, long before he became a major contributor to Nurse With Wound. Recorded entirely in his home studio, every song feels like it was recorded in a different part of the house, and all of the furniture, books, artifacts, mice, and even ghosts can somehow be heard in these songs. The first side alone switches from lo-fi avant-pop to ghostly drone to racing minimal synth to drugged-out, pitched-down creepiness (apparently involving a “secret police interrogation”). On the second side, “Later, That Same Night” is extremely trippy proto-techno with layers of backward sounds, a rotund bass line, and blazing guitars. “Ssroi’asitjk” sounds like the same track backwards, making it unclear which direction is which. “Leer” continues with the backwards escapades, this time in a speedy waltz tempo. “Jackpot” is also fast and playful, but also kind of off-balance and a bit sinister. Then there’s more than a side’s worth of bonus tracks, mostly recorded after the main album, and they similarly range from haunted soundscapes to entrancing loop explorations. While all of this maintains its homemade quality, the remastering job here is absolutely phenomenal, and it sounds way cleaner than its creator possibly could’ve imagined. Not a tiny bit of tape hiss, and a full, detailed mix. Another essential Dark Entries release.
November 23, 2018 at 3:49 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
XOR: Conic Sections LP
Commissioned for an exhibit in Miami’s ArtCenter South Florida, this album by Heinrich Mueller (Drexciya, Dopplereffekt) is a continuous work made up of weightless synth sequences and detached melodies. It’s every bit as scientific and clinical as Mueller’s post-Drexciya work has been, but there’s still human sentiments behind the sparkling melodies of pieces like “Ellipse”. It definitely nails a feeling of being trapped in space and longing for any type of connection to anyone, but not in an overbearingly gloomy way. This isn’t as immediate as his most well-known work, but it does reveal itself the more you listen, and of course it’s essential if you’re like me and you need to own everything he and/or James Stinson have ever released.
November 23, 2018 at 3:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Never Normal Soundsystem Singles tape
Suzi Analogue’s
Never Normal label released a series of digital singles this summer, mostly by up-and-coming artists. All of them are collected on this tape, which is available
digitally or from Suzi in person. Most of the tracks are short and high-impact, starting with a footwork-influenced track from WORKFLOWW, Suzi’s project with Teklifer DJ Earl. Then there’s the choppy breaks, disco loops, and booty taunts of Ted Kamal’s “Coochie”. Following futuristic rap from RADiA and Nappy Nappa, there’s hybrid footwork-electro from J Words, whose “Dial” is light and speedy but also a bit jittery. On the second side, Ziggee Gold’s “Ode to Davina” is a highly intriguing bit of floating electro-R&B which suggests a lot more to come in its minute run time. The biggest eye-opener for me, however, is “They Still Hating” by No Eyes. Taking footwork-jungle hybridity to new extremes, this 11-minute monster encompasses too many emotions to count. It’s vicious, it’s savage, it’s sweet, it’s alienated, it’s hopeful, and it just bangs so hard. Somehow I’m being reminded of Christoph de Babalon, although this isn’t nearly as bleak. But it’s just so ambitious and overwhelming and powerful. Easily my favorite new artist of the year just based on the strength of this track.
November 23, 2018 at 2:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
iZueL_: We Will Never Be So Cool
is a new name to me, but the Munich-based Spanish techno producer has been releasing a ton of music the past few years. The ten tracks on this album are all absolute belters. Very heavy and doomy, and highly focused while still having a human adrenaline rush to it. Some of the tracks are just solid, barreling techno (particularly early standout “Scripturam” while others have more intricate beat patterns (such as opener “PT5-2”). “JustAnotherLoopyDruffiTrack2” is an exquisitely arranged panic attack which just keeps descending to deeper levels of chaos. “Loopy2 (Primavera)” is far more optimistic, and even has a vaguely chiptune-sounding melody. This is all incredibly solid, inventive, and functional techno from a name worth looking out for.
November 22, 2018 at 5:32 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Black Noi$e: Illusions 2XLP
Vanity Press Records’ first-ever full-length album is from Detroit hip-hop/house (but not hip-house) producer
Black Noi$e, who released EPs on Vanity Press and Portage Garage Sounds last year. This album is filled with classic house vibes which are slightly broken and twisted. “Wake Up” is spacey and soulful, with glimmering piano fragments and a classic chugging house rhythm, sometimes augmented with a few extra kicks. “Ninety6” is co-produced by both Teklife’s DJ Taye and FXHE’s John FM, and it fashions a trippy, psychedelic loop to a stripped-down yet detailed house beat. “Jump Off A Building” hybridizes grime and house from an American perspective, fusing factory clanging with Godzilla horns. “Sunrize” is nothing less than what its title implies, with a truly hopeful melody fading in and shining through, in addition to shades of fluttering sax. “Pandemic” is closer to Stingray-esque electro but with sinister strings floating around. “B Lvde III” is a contaminated trap instrumental with clattering percussive loops and a thin but abrasive layer of swirling distortion. Screwball electro track “Oizo” is nearly wacky enough to resemble its namesake. “Xchange” is another grime-leaning house track, with brassy, waving bass dancing over its insistent, ticking beat. “Nite Drive” is exactly what it sounds like, and the type of melodic, cruising techno which could’ve come from nowhere else but Detroit.
November 14, 2018 at 10:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
VXO: s/t EP 12″
VXO stole the show on Color Plus’
Vanity Press EP from late last year. Now she has her own
EP on the label, and it’s their first release with an actual printed sleeve and cover artwork. Produced by Color Plus, the record contains six songs with beats ranging from furious jungle to detached club mutations, all with yearning, ethereal vocals floating over them.
“Why U Call Me” is a junglist pop song, with mashed-up breaks and sweet, commanding vocals up front. Following two more abstract songs, “Picture Of You” features tightly programmed, shifting breaks winding underneath more reflective, solace-seeking vocals. Then “Flower” is more manic yet dreamy jungle breaks, reaching Goldie-level cathartic, escapist beauty. The EP ends with “Alcanzarme”, a Baltimore club-inspired jam with rapid, complex, yet delicate-as-a-flower vocals in Spanish. Super inventive release, cannot get enough of this.
November 13, 2018 at 8:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
DimeSack: DimeSack Says God Says Fuck You LP
This one wins a whole buncha stupid points for the title and cover art. The record itself is extremely anti-social garage punk with synths splattered over much of it, primarily played by the masked maniac known as DimeSack, except for drums by Tony Mangolassi (producer Anthony Manganaro). The third song is called “My Life Is Shit”, and that basically sums up the theme of this album. Most of the songs thrash by in a minute or two, but “Precious Blood” is slower and doomier. “So Fucked Up” has a bit of Cramps-y swagger, but clearly raised on hardcore. The album gets progressively more pissed off and unruly, and it just goes over the top in its pure vitriol; by the end it ends up being pretty refreshing (and also perversely funny).
November 1, 2018 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Public Practice: Distance Is A Mirror EP
WALL fell down before the release of their debut album, but Sam York has new returned with a new band also featuring members of Beverly. Public Practice’s debut EP is made up of four songs recalling post-punk groups like the Bush Tetras, with steady, even danceable rhythms and sharp lyrics. “Fate/Glory” starts out with some twisted guitar action, and the already alert rhythm picks up with a spike of energy towards the end. The more punkish “Bad Girl(s)” finds York confronting radical feminists, refusing to appear a certain way or hate all men. “Foundation” is more downtown post-disco-influenced, with half-spoken lyrics which artfully describe the demise of a relationship. “Into The Ring” pushes and pulls between forceful spoken words and sing-song duets, with confident lyrics alluding to bullfighting.
October 28, 2018 at 6:18 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Beast: Ens
Koen Holtkamp’s Beast moniker makes its debut on Thrill Jockey with this gently riveting release. Much more rhythmic than some of his other work, these compositions sometimes feature drum machines backing his lightly swarming guitars and cosmic synth arpeggios. It’s super melodic and sounds bright and hopeful. “Color Feel” includes a diving-bomb whistle descending throughout a sea of pianos, and it ends up being more uplifting than unnerving. “Staren” is a bit more audacious, with deep drums booming underneath a complex arrangement of cycling strings (plucked and bowed) and synths. The album ends with the majestic sunlight waves of “For Otto”.
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