The Answer Is In The Beat

John McCowen: Solo Contra (International Anthem Recording Co., 2017)

February 10, 2018 at 3:43 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

True to its title, this is a short album of solo performances for contrabass clarinet. The instrumentation is acoustic, but like Colin Stetson, McCowen uses multiple microphones and extended breathing techniques to create something that defies what a standard musician can seemingly produce. The first track is fairly subdued and controlled, but “Chopper HD” is much sharper and reedier, verging on abrasive noise, but again, entirely acoustic. “Berths 1-3” is an extended suite which moves very slowly, tipping from thin waves to richer, more jagged textures without straying from the pulpit. It ends with what must’ve been an extremely satisfying mic (or contra) drop.

Hisato Higuchi: She (Ghost Disc, 2003/Family Vineyard, 2017)

February 4, 2018 at 7:04 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This was originally released as a CDr in 2003 and has been reissued twice so far, so I guess it must have some sort of following. I can definitely say that this is something I didn’t know I needed in my life until I heard it. It’s like very minimal 4AD-style ethereal folk, but in Japanese, and with sudden, piercing bursts of frazzled noise. The intro track even sounds like a stalling modem. So much of this album just catches you completely off guard. “Ghosts Ghost” departs from the outer space folk balladry for blasted noise with some soft drone undercurrents. “Sister Girl” also douses pretty/sad melodies in all manners of destructive distortion. Fans of Fennesz or Pita need to hear this one for sure.

Treasure Hunt: Space Jam tape (Roof Garden, 2016/Moon Glyph, 2017)

February 4, 2018 at 6:32 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

This one starts out with some very out-there cosmic free jazz, sounding like the drums from the last track on An Electric Storm going completely off the rails and being doused by radioactive horns. By “Moment of Weightlessness”, it moves into another direction entirely, with Gregorian chanting buried underneath dramatic film score melodies, but also a few dozen other things refracted and superimposed on top. The psychotic jazz comes back harder than before on “Portals”, and “Three Orbs of Planet X” is sort of a very mutated, scrambled exotica trip, with multiple drums battling it out and some airier passages where flute and trumpet take over. “Nebulae” continues from this but smooths everything out, concluding with some astral church organ. It’s impossible to say what planets, solar systems, or galaxies you’ve visited over the course of this album.

Jeff Snyder: Sunspots (Carrier Records, 2018)

February 4, 2018 at 10:41 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Jeff Snyder recorded this lengthy album of Buchla improvisations at ElektronMusikStudion in Stockholm, using a self-created controller. The first half sounds like classic eerie synth music (Subotnick, The Forbidden Planet, et al), all slowly moving shapes, colors, and phases, acidic burbles, and lengthy ominous pauses. “Sunspots IV” gets a bit hyperactive towards its midsection, with some heavy growls around the third movement and some more rapidly flashing, panic-warnings around the fifth. “Sunspots V” has moments of dread akin to Wolf Eyes (especially their recent work), and lots of suspense. Very slow moving, very creepy. The last two pieces are 18-minute drones; no sudden stops or explosions, just constant waves which sometimes seem to interact and produce chemical reactions. “Sunspots IX” is far more singular, and would be calming if it didn’t seem somewhat distressed. Listen from a distance or a low volume and it might just sound like two or three keys being pressed over and over again. However, listen closely and there’s plenty of subtle, sublime trickery going on.

Suss: Ghost Box (self-released, 2018)

February 3, 2018 at 10:51 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

While this album shares its name with a British label associated with hauntology, this group has a much different concept on their mind. They make ambient country, as if Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks was made to score a Western instead of a film of moon missions. The music emphasizes the wide open spaces of the West, rather than the “wild wild” part, so there’s loopy steel guitars, lonesome whistling (on “Late Night Call”), and lots of cosmic dust. “Big Sky” is maybe the most densely layered track, with electric soloing as well as strumming and some banjos. “Rain” is much gloomier, with a resounding series of dark, slow twangs. “Laredo” is more rhythmic, with a drum machine ticking under the crisp, clear guitars and synths — not quite as rough and rugged as the actual West. “Gunfighter” uses some film samples, but they’re a bit clipped and distant, and the slide guitar and harmonica take center stage over the haunting pulsations keeping time. “Canyonlands (Return to Wichita)” is a calm drift into the sunset, and seems to be the most synth-heavy track on the album.

Jonathan Kawchuk: North (Paper Bag, 2018)

February 1, 2018 at 9:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Composer Jonathan Kawchuk’s first album for Paper Bag is short, at only 25 minutes, but colossally ambitious. Kawchuk spent two years recording dozens of musicians and field recordings across several countries. Just look at the liner notes for a credits puzzle possibly even more complicated than the one for Syro. On top of all of this, Kawchuk played the recordings through speakers in the forests of the Jostedal National Park in Norway, so that the natural wildlife ambiance is embedded into the album. Musically, it’s a mix of acoustic, orchestral instruments, electronic processing (making the instruments sound like they’re disintegrating at times), and natural resonance. On “Aware”, there’s some slightly jarring bass rumbling underneath, bringing to mind that one moment on The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid. Even more dissonant is “Fast Twitch”, which starts with a louder, compressed noise for a few brief seconds, before cutting out, and then clusters and waves of instruments slowly creep in. As complex as the album seems, there’s moments that are incredibly sparse and minimalist, such as the delicately hypnotic “Ebb”. Closing piece “Lagos” has more voices than the preceding tracks, but they almost sound like they’re trapped in the forest and calling out for help.

Josh Urist: The Cold Equations LP (Yeggs, 2018)

January 31, 2018 at 11:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The Cold Equations looks like a soundtrack, and there’s even a cinematic trailer for it, but the actual film doesn’t exist. Composer Josh Urist used to be a volunteer at WCBN a long time ago, and this album features several other former U of M alumni and former Ann Arbor music scene regulars, most notably Stuart Bogie and the omnipresent Colin Stetson. Sarah Neufeld appears on here as well, adding strings to the sorrowful “He Meant It The Way It Sounded”. Musically, it’s sometimes airy, sometimes suspenseful, and sometimes dramatic. Drum machines pulse under a few tracks, particularly “Marilyn Lee”, “M Plus X”, and the trippier “Paragraph L, Section 8”, but several others have live drums, particularly the jaunty, breezy “Woden Bound”. “The Western Edge” is the most country-sounding lament here, while “Gerry’s Escape” is the most raucous, with gigantic drums bashing out of nowhere, and Stetson’s inimitable sax flamethrowing. “You Told a Lie (Closing Credits)” ends everything with a big, torchy ballad. The packaging is absolutely phenomenal; the sleeve is sturdy, the vinyl is heavy, and most anyone will be fooled into thinking it’s an actual soundtrack if they haven’t read the press release. Definitely a must-listen for anyone who’s enjoyed Morricone Youth’s recent scores for classic cult films.

Hannu Karjalainen: A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert (Karaoke Kalk, 2017)

January 28, 2018 at 7:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

At first I kind of thought this sounded like atmospheric jungle without the breakbeats, just leaving ambient floating. While some of the lush chords definitely have that sort of feel to it, it seems to be even more weightless, and there’s also more of a lo-fi roughness to it. It seems structured and loop-based, but yet it’s still not quite arranged so that beats could easily be pasted on top of it. And there’s something intimate about the way the melodies are played, even though it also seems really expansive and all-encompassing. Other pieces are a little closer to the usual for the modern classical side of ambient music. The title track is like a cluster of thin clouds fluttering across a sunset, for example. The most prominent rhythm is the resonating, somewhat tropical beats of “A Year In A Day”. “Love Is A Black Lion” moves away from the calmer, more pleasant sound of the majority of the album, into something more fearful, lonely, and reserved. “Breaks My Heart She Aria” starts with a soft, sighing vocal loop, then backwards crashes shudder in. Somehow the ambient jungle atmosphere, and some other hidden nature/incidental sounds, smooth everything out. Fans of Kompakt pop ambient material, don’t sleep on this.

Pablo R. Ruiz: Bad Hombre 12″ EP (Portage Garage Sounds, 2017)

January 28, 2018 at 6:21 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Chilean Detroit resident Pablo R. Ruiz appears on Shigeto’s label with a fantastic EP of Trump-baiting club tracks. The title track is restless, with nothing but jackhammer rhythms and synths which peer at you like eerie eyes. “Portal Escondido” has dot matrix printer-like slashing sounds and a big thumping kick drum, and a gloomy, swirling atmosphere. It seems stuck in an uncomfortable situation, but all it can do is keep moving regardless. “Crawlin” is by far the most paranoid track here, as it constantly features a voice asking “Why you crawlin’ on me? Hey!” like someone’s tapping you on the shoulder and speaking directly into your ear. Not to mention the sinister synth-strings and that big, fluid bass tone. “El Sueño Capitalista” is another foggy house tune with lots of under-the-beat muttering and a higher-pitched vocal loop. Killer stuff all around. Available from Bandcamp, and the digital version has a bonus track.

Vanity Press Records megapost

January 21, 2018 at 9:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Vanity Press Records gets an enormous amount of love from this blog, as it consistently delivers some of the best new underground dance music from Detroit and beyond. The latest round of titles, all of which are (or will be) available digitally from Bandcamp and physically from the label’s site, is typically excellent, and pushes the label’s scope a little further than previously hinted at. On his Vanity Press debut, Ann Arbor resident Charles Trees continues to explore hip-hop-influenced house, which is surprisingly only his second vinyl release. “Feels” has rough, choppy bongo drums and brief, blippy vocal samples with a gyrating bassline surging things forward during the last couple minutes. It sounds like there might be some jazzy vibraphones tucked away in the mix, also. “Matern” is a bit more dramatic, with tense synth-strings and a percolating acid bassline. Best of all is the B-side, “Flex”, which turns an infamous Funkmaster Flex rant (the one where he tells Jay-Z “Your website is trash!”) into a fun, furious club banger. His words are often edited and repeated to emphasize particularly biting lines and hype things up with the beat, and it ends pretty viciously.
Continuing with the hip-hop/house tangent is the label’s first 7″ release. Detroit’s Val G released one of Vanity Press Records’ first releases, containing edits/reworks of tracks by Aaliyah and NIN. The mysterious producer’s second release takes on a ’90s LL Cool J hit, endlessly looping and filtering the hook into a splashy pool party jam. On the other side, Los Angeles’ Force Placement provides a more relaxed cut, “Play On”. I’m not recognizing the sample, but it’s not quite as upfront as the track on the other side, it’s more of a hazy drift. This one’s still a summer record, but it’s more for relaxing and cooling off from the heat. The simple piano notes help push this into a more contemplative zone.
Moving away from party-friendly house, the second release from Boston producer Expletive (properly spelled !@#$%) is one of the label’s most experimental releases yet. The A-side is taken up by “Static”, a stunning track which filters digital static into some sort of rhythmic hook, and fuses it with fast, thumpy beats and ghostly ambient synths, and some haunting voices. You wonder where it’s going while it’s happening, then when it’s over you wonder where you’ve been taken to, and where else you can go from there. On the second side, “Sorting Data” has a tech geek’s voice constantly interrupted by rapid arpeggios and electro beats. The sounds seem very basic and lo-bit, but they’re arranged into something that manages to gradually become more momentous. “Big Shift” is a continuation of “Sorting Data”, traveling the same beat but going in a more dramatic direction, turning into some sort of bubbling bitwave acid trance with a relentlessly pounding kick drum. Truly a record that does a lot with just a few simple sounds, and an exciting left-field surprise.
I’ve been admiring Color Plus for a while now (or at least what I’ve heard), so it’s exciting to hear the experimental club producer on local favorite Vanity Press Records. Five tracks of vastly forward thinking beats that shun typical rhythms or structures but still have the fire to burn up a club. “Keygen” is a constantly flowing ripple of stuttering beats, obscured vocals, and soothing synth pads; heavily trippy but also steady and club-focused. “Medical MF” is a bit more fun and cheeky, with flickering machinery and an echoed voice repeating “the prozac seems to be working.” “Powercell” is more tough, hyped-up club music, with ’80s rap scratches and a slyly fluctuating, shimmering melody. “Da Back” (featuring AceMo) is more uptempo and ghettotech-inspired, with club-prowling lyrics and punchier snares. Totally on a different level than the other tracks on the disc is “Fade 2”, a leftfield pop gem sung by VXO and produced by Color Plus. It’s a sort of U.K. garage throwback with airy synths and loads of trippy effects, and it’s the type of track you’ll feel like you’ve heard before but can’t remember where. It’s astoundingly good. This and the Expletive EP are in tight competition for my favorite Vanity Press releases so far.