April 26, 2023 at 6:43 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Purelink: To/Deep 12″ EP
Chicago’s Purelink have been making waves with a distinctive blend of ambient, dub, and liquid drum’n’bass somewhere in the vicinity of releases on labels like xpq? and West Mineral Ltd. — music to swim inside rather than dance to. Their
newest EP contains two of their most refreshing tracks yet, as well as two in-demand classics now on vinyl for the first time. “Earth To” tiptoes around ambient jungle but doesn’t plunge right in, yet it’s awash in luscious, soothing textures. “Not That Deep” similarly feels like dub techno without the beats, but there’s no need for them as the rippling echoes carry enough weight to move you. “Maintain the Bliss”, the first of the two tracks that appeared digitally in 2021, is another gentle whirlpool of sound, living up to its title by not “going anywhere” but cozying into an ecstatic state and holding onto it. “Head on a Swivel” is maybe my favorite track of the EP, with more forceful jungle breaks and clicks’n’cuts suspended in a sort of aquamarine gas, steered by deep bass pulsations.
April 23, 2023 at 4:27 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Sharkiface: Climax In A Process
Angela Edwards has crossed paths with several experimental/underground music luminaries since the ’90s, including Daniel Johnston, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Leslie Keffer, Tomeka Reid, and so many others. She’s released music as Sharkiface since the 2000s, but this is her first full
solo album, containing older as well as newer material, but it’s not specified when the pieces were recorded. Anyway, her music is often vocal-based, especially the opener, “Melancholeta”, which starts by building up a flurry of breathy moans before continuing with cryptic low-pitched whispering. Other tracks fold the vocals within the acoustic strokes and tape manipulation. “Pan & Echo” uses both of those effects, stretching strings and shivering voices into glassy audio sculptures. “Hour of the Wolf” is more upfront, with poetic dialogue, but “Mystery” hides wisps of voices behind creaking and wind. After the brief, clanging “Garden Party”, the rest of the album is taken up by the six-movement “Climax In A Process”. This suite has more obvious tape manipulations than the other pieces, and seems more electronic, especially with moments like the repetitive synth tones and feedback wash of the second movement. The fourth movement plays around with tape micro-loops which vary in speed, from slow murmurations yanked up to rapid yip-yip-yips, then fragmented into tough, acidic static. The 15-minute fifth movement is a hypnotic collage of ticking and striking clocks, and it gets deeper and more intricate as it evolves. Genuinely haunting.
April 16, 2023 at 12:52 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Seekersinternational presents Ragga Preservation Society: No Parasites EP
Canadian abstract dub crew Seekersinternational sometimes dip into jungle as Ragga Preservation Society, and
their latest EP arrives on the always reliable modernist hardcore imprint Sneaker Social Club. Four six-minute tracks, all mini-soundclash sessions rather than structured DJ tools. “No Parasites (Lickshot!)” has a long ambient midsection before it gets pulled back in with breakbeats. “Caught Up (Heart Breaks)” adds a familiar diva house sample to jazzy shuffling drums, then elevates the energy with ragga chatting, sirens, and thick ravey synths whooshing past in a Hooverian blur, to borrow a phrase from one of the group’s labelmates. “2 Gold Chain (Drive U Crazy)” doesn’t go for high speed, instead rushing memories of ’80s R&B into a sweet haze. “Original of the Original” is more repetitive than the others, looping the title phrase along with a busted break in a slow, dubby crawl. Not quite an all-directions-at-once free-for-all like other SKRS releases, nor a straightforward record of any genre,
No Parasites is an intense bunch of overlapping memories which fires up when it has to, but otherwise keeps it boiling and bubbling.
April 15, 2023 at 2:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: Poverty
Have to be honest, I wasn’t really feeling the last few Jefre Cantu-Ledesma releases I heard, but I am totally back on board with
his newest one. Another total shift from anything else he’s done, this one is closer to deconstructed club or IDM with his signature noise wash smeared all over it. Some real aquatic journeying here, especially on “Circles”, but at the same time it feels like swift currents of liquid metal, or possibly even magma at some points. He has an amazing way of making music that grinds up harshness and light while it’s moving fluidly, whether or not it contains anything resembling beats. “Non-person” just completely decimates beats into mulch and can’t be followed by any logical time signature, but I’m following down its path wherever it’s heading. I’m hoping he does more stuff in this sort of fragmented electronic direction because this has the power to be another game changer.
April 14, 2023 at 6:18 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Charlatan: Suncast Renditions
came out back in January and I want to make sure it gets a bit of attention. The two lengthy tracks build from tanpura drones. Ecstatic synth layers do somersaults in a vast, open field flooded with sunlight on the sublime opening piece, “Immortelle”. “Overgrown Solar Array” is more nocturnal, with a dark cosmic glow yet an almost aquatic way of pushing currents in multiple directions. Both tracks are just stellar, I am truly enjoying where this music is taking my mind.
April 13, 2023 at 7:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Doormouse: Broken
On one of Doormouse’s highly active, meme-heavy social media accounts, he pointed out that the term breakcore had more Google searches last year than it had since the 2000s. Yet the newer generation seems to confuse breakcore with anything that has fast Amen breaks, a lot of which sounds more like atmospheric drum’n’bass. So
here’s Doormouse to once again bring back the gung gung and ridiculous samples. “Sax Me Hard” mangles Lisa Simpson samples and free jazz solos, as well as a Kenny G interview and a chiptune version of “Careless Whisper”. And lots of people shouting, and a
Helter Stupid sample. It’s also kind of a trick birthday candle, it keeps flaring back when you think it’s over and it lasts for 8 minutes. “Old Detestable Tripping Bastards” is two and half minutes of terrorcore beats slicing “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” apart. “Acid Americano” is what happens when a Godzilla-like monster takes a giant radioactive shit all over electroswing. “Cowboy Love” and “(Making Love To The Sound Of) The Gabber Kick Drum” share samples, so they seem like two parts of the same song. The first has whip cracks, the second has a bit of acid breaks, and they’re both hard crushers. I’ve posted before that I’m optimistic about the new breed of breakcore, I think it’s regressive for older scenesters to complain about what younger people are doing because the youth are supposed to be doing something different and distinct from what’s happened before. But there’s still nothing like a certified master doing it his way, and this is just loads of fun.
April 12, 2023 at 6:24 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Fashion Flesh: Rubber Mountain LP
Fashion Flesh is the solo project of John Talaga, a Michigan-based synth wizard and builder of electronics who used to be part of the mindbending Baroque chiptune act Super Madrigal Brothers.
This LP is a monstrously fun set of off-the-wall, off-the-grid synth jams loaded with strange, queasy effects. The first side has two hallucinogenic disco tracks with a slower, more haunted minimal synth cut sandwiched in between. I was kind of expecting murkier, creepier stuff like that on this record, so the dancey tracks are a nice surprise, but of course they’re also freaky and covered in mutagen ooze. “Free Air” is more of a new wave synth punk shuffle, and “Never Lie Again” has more zombified vocals over bouncy techno beats. Then there’s “Canopy Bed”, a 13-minute wasteland of bubbling synth effects constantly expanding past their limits, whipping the beats into an overdriven frenzy. This is just an enormously gleeful wigged-out synth record that keeps me grinning for as long as it’s playing.
April 11, 2023 at 6:50 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Drivetrain/Rennie Foster: Empress Enigma 12″ EP
Drivetrain (Derrick Thompson) is an unsung legend of the Detroit house scene who’s been releasing music through his own Soiree Records International since 1990. His side of this new split EP contains two versions of “It Can Never Be the Same”, the first being a reflective, slowly growing house track, and the second being a stripped-down, almost acoustic downtempo version with jazzy bass guitar soloing. Canada’s Rennie Foster, another house lifer who’s been at it since the ’90s and put out music on several Detroit labels, provides both tracks on the second side. “Guiding Light” is a propulsive deep house roller with percolating basslines and cymbals pitched up and down, giving a feeling of acceleration. “I Haven’t Forgotten” is a surprisingly sentimental tune with an echoing vocal sample, stirring string melodies, and acidic synths for a bit of an edge, and I think it’s actually the best song on the record.
April 9, 2023 at 3:50 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Tape Excavation
First released on vinyl in 2020, this is an
extended CD edition of an album of rarities by various Bruce Licher projects, remastered by none other than Warren Defever. It goes in roughly chronological order, which means it starts out with primordial post-punk recordings by Project 197 and Bridge, bashed out at rehearsals or in a parking garage. Other than a handful of songs, all the tracks on this release are short, so they all kind of rush through as a haze of memories. There’s moments that stand out, like the fun, organ-driven mysteria of Final Republic’s “Chase”. Savage Republic’s “First Siege” is closer to a danceable post-punk rhythm, while “Assembly of the Dead” has the same energy but is more solemn and processional. Licher’s music started to have more of a dreamy sway during the ’90s, particularly with space rock band Scenic and projects like the bedroom recording duo Lemon Wedges. Exploratorium’s “The Atmosphere” is more of a dark soundscape that sounds like airplanes flying overead. Then “SF Cima Song” is just a gorgeous wash of lovely ethereal guitars. The Lanterna collaboration “B Minor” is moodier and progresses a bit more than other songs here. Later home demos like “Birthdaysong (7 x 7 is)” and “Mesopotamia” have strong, chiming rhythms and spacey textures, making an impressively grand sound for solo guitar tracks.
April 8, 2023 at 2:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
A Produce: The Clearing
Barry Craig called his music trance long before the term had any association with club music.
This is an expanded reissue of the first LP he released on his Trance Port label in 1988, a decade before Paul Oakenfold released his best-selling mix CD
Tranceport. A lot of A Produce’s music seems to be categorized as tribal ambient or new age, but this earlier release is a bit closer to minimal wave and even post-punk. These are mostly songs rather than extended bliss-outs, with rhythmic and melodic structures, sometimes even vocals. Some of it is more repetitive though, including tracks like “Tunnels”, which is a pretty great haunting movie scene. “Pulse” is a more Meredith Monk-type piece with vocalist and violist Josie Roth speaking in tongues. “October 1st” is a more haunting dark ambient drone, and “Ashes of Love” seems like it’s going to start that way, but then it ends up being a darkwave goth epic. “The Raw Silk, The Uncarved Block” begins as a smooth, clear as a bell piece for wind chimes, then segues into a Neu!-inspired drone-rock track propelled by a drum machine. “The Clearing”, the last track on the original LP, sounds closer to a Dead Can Dance instrumental without the traditional instrumentation. “Raga Riley” is very obviously inspired by minimalism, simply consisting of warm, cosmically minded organ patterns and a simple shaker-produced rhythm. “Erosion” is filled with a gale of noises in the background, starting out with reflective piano melodies over steady rock drums programmed on a drum machine (with plenty of fills), then it gains a more Satriani-esque guitar solo (kinda). “Dorian Imagination” is just guitars and effects, and it starts out with more cross-stitched rhythmic patterns before washing out in a rush later on. The last bonus track, “Industrial Edge”, is a deceptively simple piano and guitar instrumental twisted by some almost gleefully off-the-rails effects.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 