The Answer Is In The Beat

CCFX: The Remixes 12″ EP (DFA, 2018)

July 28, 2018 at 8:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

CCFX’s EP on DFA last year was a pleasant surprise, marrying jangly post-punk to bittersweet downtempo disco in the vein of St. Etienne. Even more surprising is the fact that the members also make country-rock as County Liners. This remix EP is yet another surprise, beginning with two atmospheric jungle remixes, removing the lyrics but keeping the feelings in, and accelerating the ecstasy with heavy, choppy breakbeats (and also an Elmer Fudd giggle on “The One to Wait”). The remaining two tracks are closer to the tempo of the originals, but add more effects and strange noises, like the warbly bells at the beginning of “Ode”, and the heavy, slamming dub echo on both tracks. The tracks gain more of a paranoid, claustrophobic edge, but there’s also a sense of comfort to them. It’s all pushed over the edge, and it elevates something which was already refreshing into something stranger and more exciting.

Two Rooms mega-post

July 28, 2018 at 5:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The first LP on Two Rooms Records, a new label launched by Detroit venue/cafe Trinosophes, is easily the most traditional-sounding of the label’s initial batch of releases. The quartet formed after drummer Dr. Prof. Leonard King and baritone saxophonist Alex Harding played together for the first time since 1995, and then invited Rocco Popielarski to play bass, soon followed by the addition of trombonist Vincent Chandler. Apart from Chandler’s “Closing Doors”, all the selections are covers of other people’s songs, and all four musicians fully understand each composition. There’s an unmistakable energy and chemistry to their playing, with shouts of joy appearing during certain high-spirited moments. Harding’s sax has a bit of a barbed edge to it, but it’s not overwhelmingly abrasive. While generally structured and composed, the quartet do let loose at the end of “Mandela’s Muse”, after a rallying cry of “Freedom!” Apart from a rendition of “You Don’t Know What Love Is”, it’s all pretty upbeat.
Three years after Midwich Productions released the first Viands LP, which was recorded live at Trinosophes, Two Rooms is now issuing the duo’s second album, which was recorded as a rehearsal for a festival performance in 2016. Like their first album, this is two sidelong minimalist explorations, with some loose rhythmic underpinning at some points, as well as lots of moments where it just heads off and goes where the spirit leads them. The second side has some moments which start to sound like one of Raymond Scott’s synth inventions starting to lose control, and then some others that seem to be probing the sky for alien life forms, and preparing for their ascent to earth.
The third release on Two Rooms features four pieces improvised by Thollem on different pianos, each in a different tuning system, all of which were devised by Clem Fortuna. Some of these are forms of just intonation, so the pieces seem to explore the limitations imposed by the unconventional tunings. “Golden Meantone” is perhaps the most “prepared”-sounding one, with more of a visceral attack on the instrument. The most mind-bending piece is the lengthiest, “Ten Tone Equal Temperament”, in which Fortuna spontaneously alters the tuning while Thollem is playing.

Westerbur & Rowe: 2018 LP (Northern Ashram, 2018)

July 27, 2018 at 10:45 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Detroit duo Westerbur & Rowe continue their series of long-form psychic explorations with their fifth full-length album (there was also a 10″ EP following the first LP). Rowe is currently a member of His Name Is Alive, and Westerbur has played with Electric Six, the Meatmen, King Tuff, and many others. Together, they play synth-heavy, side-long compositions somewhere in between Krautrock, prog, and minimalism. Some of it’s like Zombi but not quite as horror-obsessed, although there’s no reason why this wouldn’t work as a soundtrack to some sort of disturbing movie. The second side (J), is more vibrant, and has a sort of cinematic soul-funk bent to it, as well as organ solos which are heavy enough to fool you into thinking they’re being played on a guitar. Vinyl LPs are available at Detroit-area record stores, or at Bandcamp, and are well worth picking up.

Tim Walters: Austerity Measures (VauxFlores Industrial, 2018)

July 27, 2018 at 9:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Tim Walters (Circular Firing Squad, Usufruct) created this album with two small analog synths and some old SuperCollider coding. The result is ten standard-length pieces which fizz, stammer, belch, crackle, and sometimes sound like they’re short circuiting so much that the studio’s about to burn down. There’s a strange, non-linear rhythm to some moments, but it’s more prone to sudden explosions and spasms. Super tense and abrasive, with a constant push-pull and seemingly no end game. It’s pretty fun and exciting. It’s sort of like a more electro-shocked version of an early electro-acoustic work, but it’s not quite anarchist enough to be a “noise” album. Regardless, it’ll definitely keep you up at night. Name-your-price download at Bandcamp.

K. Leimer: Imposed Order/Imposed Absence (Palace of Lights, 2018)

July 20, 2018 at 11:14 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This is a remastered reissue of a 1983 album by K. Leimer (also of Savant, who were recently anthologized by Rvng Intl), one of his last albums before he stopped releasing music for two decades. The second disc is recordings he made during the hiatus, and while he was transitioning from analog to digital instruments. Imposed Order can be broadly described as ambient, particularly on longer, spacier tracks like “Three Forms of Decay” and “Method, Language and Silence”, but a lot of it plays with African rhythms, even approximating water drumming at some points. Tracks like “Life of the Poet” fit in nicely with the type of Fourth World fusion which has become hip again. The tracks on Imposed Absence date from 1983 to 1987, and while they’re described in the liner notes as sketches or pieces set aside, there seems to be a bit more of an immediacy to some of them (but not others). “Rain Bed” gets slightly hazier, combining thin waves of digital static with what sounds like bowed strings. “The Uneven Ritual” is a brief art-rock piece which comes a lot closer to Leimer’s work with Savant. “The Surround” ends the album on a sort of dark, candlelit note.

Eve Fowler: Words Doing As They Want To Do LP (Radical Documents, 2018)

July 18, 2018 at 11:15 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Photographer Eve Fowler is known for producing works which incorporate the words of Gertrude Stein, often blowing them up on to large, stark, colorful posters. This LP was created for Fowler’s first major European exhibition, and it contains unaccompanied readings of two Stein works, recited by several readers taking turns, speaking clearly but very occasionally fumbling. The first side, “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene”, is a 1925 poem which contains the first published usage of the word “gay” referring to sexual orientation, and is believed to have helped popularize the term. The piece is very repetitive, with the word “gay” being used well over 100 times, and it seems like a sort of word game, exploring every last approach to the ideas it’s conveying. But the words “regular” and “regularly” also crop up a lot, and the characters seem to be doing normal, everyday things (or not really doing things, just being, and being happy), so it drives home the point of the normality of being gay. It’s definitely something that should be heard, but its repetition could verge on being tedious. On the other side is “Q.E.D”, a short story written in 1903 but published after Stein’s death. It’s an autobiographical story about coming out, and it’s much more complex and affecting than the poem on the first side. In fact, while listening to it, it’s kind of mind-blowing that it was written over a century ago, as every sentiment spoken is entirely relevant and relatable today.

Philip D Kick: Pathways 12″ EP (Astrophonica, 2018)

July 7, 2018 at 12:49 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Om Unit has revived his juke/jungle alias Philip D Kick for an EP of original tracks, rather than remixes of established classics. This one explores a bunch of different hybrid sounds, starting with the uptempo acid and breakbeats of “In Formation”. “Work That” is sort of a Chicago vs. Detroit thing, recalling both Steve Poindexter and Underground Resistance, before being nearly consumed by jungle (but keeping the fast 4/4 beat). “Drown” is hard yet liquid jungle which revolves around a Gang Starr sample, then plunges into Amen-land. DJ Spinn guests on “Vibe Off”, and it’s a more jungle-centric version of any of the Teklife tracks which have flirted with the genre. “For Real” knits tightly wound electro beats with some flashes of jungle breaks and a thick level of suspense. Very nice release.

Lunaria: Ascension Now tape (Constellation Tatsu, 2018)

July 7, 2018 at 12:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I wish they played and sold music like this at new age bookstores. Purely uplifting and relaxing without being cheesy or seeming like it’s catering to a niche audience. The tape consists of two side-long pieces which richly wave back and forth, enveloping but never overwhelming. Sometimes there’s the sound of gentle rainfall, but it sounds more like it just happened to be raining during the recording session than a piped-in sound effect. Either way this tape is serene and enjoyable.

Endurance: Shade Terrarium tape (Constellation Tatsu, 2018)

July 6, 2018 at 10:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This is my introduction to Endurance, even though he’s released over a dozen tapes since 2016. It’s clearly in the ambient zone-out realm, but it combines found sounds and rich tonal drifts, and it expands and travels rather than remaining in the same mode. It’s a bit cold and melancholy, but it’s not totally isolating. While the first side is a bit more melodic, it gets a bit crushed out by the second’s side “Itineranturum”. “Fluminam Ductur” sets chiming melodies over a storm of washed-out tape noise, and they manage not to get swept out.

Chihei Hatakeyama: Scene tape (Constellation Tatsu, 2018)

July 6, 2018 at 9:14 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Chihei Hatakeyama is forever a master of muted, wintry ambient pieces and soft, distant drones. This tape is typical of his trademark sound, but the snowy melodies seem to flutter and wander a bit. It’s not as glacial as you might expect. And the two-part “Blue Reminder” is soft, intimate, and cradling, yet also quite melancholy. There aren’t too many elements here, but they all express so much. This man has dozens of albums, and he simply does not release bad music.