June 21, 2018 at 12:20 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Turning Jewels Into Water: Which Way Is Home? 12″ EP
Percussionist Ravish Momin and Haitian turntablist Val Jeanty (aka Val-Inc) present a brief but potent EP of broken rhythms and lost afterlife transmissions. With eerie voices asking existentialist questions and diced up on a turntable, and heavy, unsteady beats booming on top, this sounds like the ’90s WordSound illbient scene updated for the era of footwork, Principe Discos, and Nyege Nyege Tapes. Not coincidentally, two producers from the latter label remixed the title track, although one of the mixes is digital-only. Slikback’s remix reminds me of Addison Groove’s juke/dubstep crossover tracks from nearly a decade ago. “Lights Below the Water” houses fractured earth rhythms, and “Vishwas” is an absolutely heavy bass killer, shaking right down to the foundation and responding with snapping snares and dubbed-up b-boy chants. Then it all builds up to a near panic attack before the very end.
June 17, 2018 at 6:47 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Pure Rave: Vol. 4 + Vol. 5 tapes
Pure Rave are a team from Detroit who have been playing very abstract mix sets using skipping records, cheap mixers, samplers, CDJs, and I’m not sure what else. Maybe I’m not even right about all of those things. But they’ve been sort of the house DJs for the last 2 Trip Metal Fests, playing weird, warped, noisy dance beats in between bands. It’s hard to find a whole lot of info about then, but there is a
Soundcloud page. At this year’s TMF, they had a batch of 5 tapes for sale. I was close to just buying all of them, but I thought that would be overkill so I just got the last 2. There’s no info on them, so no clue when they were recorded or released, or if they’re even available anywhere besides their gigs (or any other gigs besides TMF). But the tapes encapsulate the messiness and spontaneity of Pure Rave’s club sets. The crew seem to think skipping records are way more fun to dance to than records played straight through, so you’ll have house records that keep repeating themselves, turning into their own spontaneous disco edits, and then they’ll be overlapped with other rhythms that are sort of in the same tempo but aren’t quite, and then they’ll just totally lose track and meld into something else. And there’s also moments where there’s Yasunao Tone-like glitches over everything, and some hidden screams and growls. It’s pretty chaotic and absurd but there does seem to be a sense of momentum to it, it doesn’t all seem entirely random or unfocused. And there are points where the beats straighten out and it gets pretty soul-gazing. Near the end of of
Vol. 4, they move away from house and drop in some smooth yacht-jazz, and then chop and screw it for a while, making it increasingly disorienting and hallucinatory.
Vol. 5 starts out with flashing carnival lights and severely slowed down voices, and the sporadic shrieks and squeaks from the previous tape are still in abundance. On this tape, instead of a continuous mix, there’s plenty of long pauses, giving the appearance of different compositions, but they sometimes seem like progressions from previous portion of the mix. It’s really hard to tell what is going on, of course, so it’s best to just give up trying to make sense and accept occasional awkward silences as part of the journey. At one point, a classical record gets muddled up with some sour horns and grubby, skipping house tracks, and it feels like it’s going somewhere and nowhere at once, and then it just fades out. The other side starts out sounding like it’s being consumed by quicksand, but the beat gets more alert later on. Then it ends with some of the same flashy carnival-type noises as the beginning. The members of Pure Rave are obviously well versed in both dance music and experimental noise, but they obviously chose the name Pure Rave because they do make dance mixes, and these tapes as well as their live sets seem like danceable avantgarde compositions.
June 16, 2018 at 9:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Universal Eyes: Four Variations On ‘Artificial Society’ 2LP
Universal Indians pre-dated Wolf Eyes by several years, but they both featured overlapping members, and it seems like Wolf Eyes progressed from them in many ways. At this year’s Trip Metal Fest, Universal Indians members Aaron Dilloway, Gretchen Gonzales, and John Olson reunited, with Wolf Eyes’ Nate Young joining them, forming Universal Eyes. The four musicians recorded a session together in a single day after not having played together in almost 2 decades. Warren Defever mixed and mastered it the next day. A few weeks later, it was completely pressed to vinyl at Third Man in a limited edition of 100 copies, and it was sold at the one-day Trip Metal Fest at El Club. Warren told me it’s easily the fastest turnaround time for a record that he’s ever seen. The album features four sidelong improvisations, and each label features one of the band members’ pictures. There’s no indication of whether that side is “their” side or not, it all sounds like group improvisations. A download card comes with the record, and the digital version of the album suggests that the records are actually meant to be played at 45 RPM, which makes for a very different dynamic. Instead of being slow and trudgy and creepy, it’s much wilder, more chaotic, freer, more ecstatic. It really is two different listening experiences depending on which speed you play it on. I guess that’s true for most records, though. Interpreting the album’s title, it sounds like the music of a fake world, where pop culture has been obliterated, the conventions of music don’t exist, and the few surviving humans have to learn how to make their own instruments and basically reinvent music from the ground up. There’s a stark, minimal drum machine that sound like a dripping faucet at one point, then at other points the rhythms are more hurried and panicking. Dilloway contributes scorching guitar noise and reel-to-reel howls, and Olson plays some truly bizarre reed instruments, sometimes more than one at a time (assuming the recording sessions were anything like their set at TMF). It does sound like variations on a theme, but it approaches it from a few different directions, and even more depending on how you listen.
June 14, 2018 at 8:48 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Tatira: Fire Everlasting
The third (and perhaps final?) release from Ryan Huber’s Tatira alias is a bit less beat-driven than the other two, focusing more on suspense and doom. There’s something fragile about the pinpoint IDM of “Rod of Iron”, while “Second Signal” is more of a dark, glowing sphere. “We Became Light” is a little closer to the new wave-ish techno of the last Tatira release, but it’s heavier on starry sweeps. While there’s tracks like the calm, bleak drones “New Clear Day” and “Weapon of Cowards”, there’s also more dramatic, complex pieces like the goth-techno jam “Fire Everlasting”. “Countermand” is punchy, monochromatic techno which feels like it’s going to build up something but it just goes headstrong until it fades out. “Unimpeded Fall” starts out sounding like it’s going to lead into another steady techno track, but then it abruptly switches into a furnace blast of noise, with some dripping water or ticking clock rhythm behind it. “Shadow Realm” ends the album with seven minutes of foreboding storm cloud drone. Free download at
Bandcamp.
June 9, 2018 at 1:48 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices: BooCheeMish
The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices (or Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares) is a long-running all-female choir who perform modern arrangements of traditional Bulgarian folk melodies. They became an international phenomenon in the ’80s when 4AD released a pair of compilation albums spotlighting their work, the first of which was actually a reissue of an album released in 1975, and the second of which won a Grammy in 1989. Since then, the choir has toured and released several additional albums, in addition to being sampled by countless producers and groups looking to add a dash of otherworldliness to their music. This is the choir’s first album in 20 years, and it unites them with Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, another act synonymous with the golden era of 4AD, and who has also been sampled innumerable times. Gerrard adds her unmistakable contralto to four songs, which are all highlights. While some of the group’s earlier recordings were a cappella, these songs are mostly performed using traditional instrumentation, but a couple of them are a bit more upbeat and modern-sounding, such as “Rano Ranila”, which is credited as featuring beatboxing. While some of the choir’s recordings can be dark and somewhat gothic, there’s some really upbeat and joyous songs here, such as “Tropanitsa”. Whether or not you’re familiar with the older recordings, this one sounds wonderful.
June 3, 2018 at 7:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Waajeed: Mother EP
Platinum Pied Piper and Slum Village associate Waajeed has dabbled in house and techno for a long time, but he’s been releasing a lot more house music as of late, and his first record for Planet E is absolutely sublime. The title track features Steffanie Christi’an, who currently sings lead vocals for Inner City, and it’s such a purely uplifting, thankful song. The repeated vocal bits keep the song stuck in my head, then the full vocals radiate with joy and positivity, and I’m just hooked, even if I’m not in that much of a positive mood myself. “Earth” is a bit darker and more sinister, featuring some robotic mutterings from Scan 7’s Blak Tony. “Obba” is a nice minimal house cut which has an undercurrent of joy, but isn’t as overtly celebratory and brimming with optimism as “Mother”. “Frances” has some darker overtones, but isn’t too gloomy, and the strong beats and hand drums push it along, keeping a hopeful spirit intact. An overall wonderful record, and a must for anyone who loves Detroit house.
June 3, 2018 at 6:54 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Eduardo De La Calle: Icosahedrite EP 12″
Madrid’s Eduardo De La Calle has released around 100 records, but I wasn’t really aware of him until this one, his first on Planet E. “Phason Jazz” is the track from here that’s been getting the most club play, and it’s a spacey epic with keyboard vamps and astral effects, which really does sound like a jazz combo performing in an outer galaxy, yet there’s also a locked-in house rhythm to it. “Mr Dewey D” is kind of similar, but with a playful up-and-down sequence and some stranger, squeakier noises near the end. My favorite track on the record is the more experimental “Rhythmic Soundscapes”, which begins by starting like the record is constantly winding up and down, then attaches a beat to it, and some free-floating piano echos off the edge. Reminds me of the disorientation of some of the early Kompakt stuff, but from a new perspective.
June 3, 2018 at 6:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
SunFalls: dream’minus tape
SunFalls is a Portland-based artist making highly complex, glitchy electronic music on a hybrid setup including modular synths. Very dense, abstract pieces with rhythms which constantly sound like they’re melting, struggling to find themselves, or just completely smashed apart. Yes, it’s very Autechre-like, but some of this guy’s compositions get into more of a deep-space alienation zone than theirs. Undeniably machine-driven/generated music, but it still pushes outward into the zone uninhabitable by humans or human technology. When the beats are stronger, it’s REALLY intense (such as “prizm [i.D.”). Even when they aren’t it’s still a heavy listening experience. The track that gets me the most is the tunneling beat shrapnel of “sunPetrol”, especially when the beat overloads and fizzles and then continuously regenerates. It doesn’t make conventional “sense” but to me it’s just so powerful. Totally into what this guy’s doing. Cassette still available from
Bandcamp.
May 17, 2018 at 9:10 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Von Hayes: You Vape?
Ten years ago, Von Hayes released
Evident Eyelid, one of my favorite lo-fi rock and roll albums of all time. A brief
EP soon followed, but the group seemed to disappear, and one of the members went down a very strange path with a long string of releases under the name
Graham Repulski. Unbeknownst to me, the group’s members, now spread out between Philadelphia and Delaware, have been sporadically recording songs in their basements, and several singles have made their way to Bandcamp over the past couple of years.
You Vape? is the culmination of these recordings, and it’s very much in line with their older stuff, with in-the-red guitar feedback sharing space with more introspective songwriting, and bizarre, fragmentary pieces carrying just as much importance as songs with proper verse-and-chorus structure. It doesn’t tip quite into the realm of dadaist sound art that some of Repulski’s work does, but there’s still loads of weirdness abound, such as the distorted, evil-sounding noise collage blaring in the background of “Ass Candy”, or the acid-trip vocal processing on “Tar Lob”. Good luck deciphering most of the lyrics, but some of them are more straightforward, such as “Exclusive Monk”‘s nostalgic refrain “I used to be cool a long time ago”. Longtime GBV associate Todd Tobias mastered this release, but don’t expect it to sound clean and polished; it’s as blown out, hissy, and confusing as can be, and all the better for it. Sometimes… you just gotta vape!
May 12, 2018 at 8:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Köster: MASC tape
This tape contains the soundtrack to a solo dance performance about hypermasculinity as viewed from an LGBTQ perspective. Even without visuals (other than a few photos in the tape’s J-card), it sounds provocative from the beginning, with plenty of wet, drippy sounds and sensual percussion rhythms. “Drag” gradually unfolds with wam organ chords and sampled pop vocals which slowly reveal themselves, and a beat which sets everything in motion. “Club 1” is industrial techno for the dungeon, but with a graceful touch to it, and it’s easily my favorite track here. “Club 2” continues the vibe, but adds a pitched-down sample from a certain mid-’90s alternative dance single (I recognize what it is, but I’ll leave it a secret… I’ll just say that it seems to make more sense in the context of this track than its original source). Following the cloudy house track “The Hook Up”, “Rituals” is all ghostly murmurations, fluttering scraps, and cyber thunder. The beats return on “Hypermasc”, which seems like an intense physical workout as well as a busy factory.
« Previous Page —
Next Page »
The Answer Is In The Beat 