May 6, 2017 at 10:24 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Hear in Now: Not Living In Fear
Hear in Now is an intercontinental trio consisting of cellist Tomeka Reid, violinist Mazz Swift, and double bassist Silvia Bolognesi. They were brought together by a commision from Italian organization WomaJazz, and their first performance occurred in 2009. Prior to that performance, the three musicians had never met. This is their second album, recorded during sessions in Chicago in 2012 and 2014. Apart from two group improvisations, each of the album’s songs were generally written by one of the three musicians. The trio are remarkably in tune with each other, readily adapting to the push and pull of the compositions. The music flows between more discordant, free moments and more structured rhythms. The self-explanatory “Requiem for Charlie Haden” is a little more straightforward, but other pieces like “Billions and Billions” are more sinister and turbulent. AACM member Dee Alexander offers encouraging words on the album’s title track. The only other track to feature vocals is “Cultural Differences”, which starts off tense and mournful before Swift’s relaxing, folky scatting switches the piece into something more hopeful and welcoming.
May 6, 2017 at 8:47 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
German Army: Diaspora of Intolerance
This is German Army’s second CD release on Dub Ditch Picnic, and like the first, it compiles tracks from their many limited edition tapes. In particular, this one basically contains three 2014 tapes in their entirety, plus one previously unreleased track from those sessions. This can be described as experimental industrial, with plenty of ventures into the mystical/shamanic/ritualistic realm. Lots of distorted voices (but not used in a similar way on every track), some detached rhythms, lots of hazy echo and fading into a different dream scene. Some tracks are elaborate collages of tribal exotica, particularly “Barefoot”. Others have (relatively) more straightforward rhythms and vocals, such as “Expedition”. The track titled “New Order” has a bouncing drum machine beat which seems to be falling apart, and the deep, moody synths vaguely hint at “Blue Monday”. More accurate reference points seem to remain the Residents and Cabaret Voltaire, maybe also Rapoon/Zoviet France or Hafler Trio. Some tracks have heavier beats, such as the more abrasive “Household” or the druggy sleepwalk “Monstrous Bodies”. Others like “Tjeti” head towards deconstructed techno. I wish the 81-second chiptune-ish “Fragment” was way longer. Atmospheric, fluttering guitars drift in during tracks like “Pagan Fruit” and “Corn Mother”; only on a few other rare moments do the guitars seem aggressive. “Wet Heads” is one of the most meditative songs they’ve ever recorded, with tambura droning underneath peaceful acoustic guitar, all doused with enough echo and delay to feel like a mound of sand gradually being blown away by the wind. There’s too many other highlights to mention here; all there really else to say is that this is a group well on their way toward leaving a vast, astonishing recorded legacy.
May 5, 2017 at 10:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Inhalt: Part Time Punks Sessions
San Francisco’s Inhalt released two EPs on Dark Entries a few years back, as well as some remix 12″s. This is their first album, and it basically contains all of the same songs as the EPs (B-side of the first EP, as far as I could tell, sounded like instrumentals of the A-side). Most of the tracks were actually recorded live (in studio) directly to 24 track tape, for an L.A. radio show called Part Time Punks, and they sound remarkably crisp, clear, and polished. More than most minimal wave acts these days, this sounds a lot like German new wave acts like D.A.F. At some points, maybe, just maybe, it sounds like a bleaker Kraftwerk. No guitars, all synths and vocals, which are mostly in German (although “Programming” is in French, and also has some vocoders, and there’s some English vocals elsewhere). Tracks range from urgent synth-pop songs (“Black Sun”, “Vehicle”) to atmospheric spoken word (“Noise”) to a droning, buzzing intro (“Aphonia”). Even if most of the songs have been released before, they all fit together as a coherent album, and it’s a handy summation of the group for anyone who hasn’t heard them before. Available on their
Bandcamp page.
April 28, 2017 at 7:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Nicole Mitchell: Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
Chicago flautist Nicole Mitchell’s latest album (recorded live at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2015) is based on a concept of combining dualities, considering the idea of smashing utopia and dystopia together. Acoustic and electric instruments are juxtaposed in order to explore an advanced society in harmony with nature. The album seems to be primarily acoustic, with strings, percussion, and Japanese instruments such as shamisen and shakuhachi credited along with electric guitar, theremin, and electronics. At times it’s dissonant in an avant-rock way. In other moments, it’s trippy, evocative, and otherworldly. During the album’s second half, vocalist avery r young gives a voice to Mitchell’s lyrics about earthly struggles. He seems to creep up to the stage from the back of the room during the gospel-inflected “Staircase Struggle”. “Shiny Divider” is a bit more bluesy, speaking frankly of bloodshed and demanding that humanity finds a solution. After the lengthy instrumental “Mandorla Island”, young returns on “TineWrap”, referencing heavy labor in fields and on railroads, and explaining how determination is crucial to the survival of humanity. A powerful album which (unfortunately) is even more relevant now than when it was composed and recorded.
April 20, 2017 at 8:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Between Interval: Legacy
Pretty good deep space ambient/downtempo with a slight sci-fi theme. This artist remixed Sally Shapiro almost a decade ago, but I’d say this is closer to Johan Agebjörn’s solo stuff. Pulsating ambient with touches of sad synth-pop melodies and some dub echoes. There’s light arpeggios, but there’s lots of room for space and reflection. “The Hour Appointed” has rushing water, bird chirps, and bell-like tones. “Fields of Neptune” has a nice synth sequence which drifts in along with nocturnal mist and fog. “Gravity Core” is dub techno with the beats suspended so all that’s left is the echoes into the void (plus some suspenseful pads creeping in during key moments). “Inner Guidance” is the only track to feature voices, and they’re heavily shrouded in echo, resembling the advice of spirits. Between Interval’s style is somewhat minimalist, but the intention is for the imagination to color in the empty space.
April 19, 2017 at 10:43 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
Ron Zakrin: One In A Million LP
Detroit-based painter and musician Ron Zakrin used to record electro-punk as Goudron, with releases on ADULT.’s Ersatz Audio and Ectomorph’s Interdimentional Transmissions. This is his first LP under his own name, and it’s closer to stripped-down electro-techno, with brittle, paranoid melodies in the Dopplereffekt/Aux 88 mode, but there’s still new wave/synth-pop elements to it. “Hells Androids” is bouncy and playful, but “Guilty Pleasures” is more of an even tempo and has some guitar-like distortion and a swooping bassline. “Streetwise” injects some 8-bit textures into its suspenseful electro-funk. “Haste to Hastings” and “Midnight Hustle (D Major)” are cosmic disco homages, and “One in a Million” is a chipper new wave tune with a playful Casio-sounding outro. Available from
Bandcamp.
April 19, 2017 at 10:08 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Ian Ginsing: Cosmetic Blemish 12″ EP
Solid, steady tech-house from a former Detroiter now living in Portland, and also known as Jerry Abstract. Solid, playful tracks with a snap and a crunch to them. Pretty minimal and groove-based, for the most part. “Wet Yeti” is as slyly cheeky as its title; “Womance” is a bit darker and more pensive, and has lots of cool snips and glitches. “Pattaya Shuffle” is a bit of a nervous rattler, with stammering beats and some weird cartoonish samples poking through near the end. “Seeping Into Film” has an almost dubstep/garage-ish bounce to it, and a filtered vocal sample that reminds me of Hardrive’s “Deep Inside” for some reason (but buried way deep inside). Available on
Bandcamp, but “Wet Yeti” only appears on the 12″.
April 8, 2017 at 8:58 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Uton/The Gonk with a Luminous Nose/Roped Off/Sheaf & Froggatt: split tape
Yet another tape from a while ago that I’m just catching up on. This one starts off with a 20-minute suite from Digitalis alumni Uton. It evokes a lot of the same haunted forest qualities as many of the other Finnish experimental underground artists. It feels like it’s being played by animals under the light of neon stars, then it takes the form of psychoactive bubbles in a luminous pool, then it’s a shortwave radio transmission. The Gonk with a Luminous Nose (more commonly known as The Golden Gonk) follows suit with overdriven hypnotic fuzz. Less prone to shapeshifting or changing form than Uton, he’s more likely to venture hard down one direction, until the location itself morphs into something else. On the tape’s second side, Hausu Mountaineers Roped Off start with throbbing minimalist synths, but then their second track is a noisier and more expansive (but still hypnotic and minimalist in some way) journey through an asteroid belt. Sheaf & Froggatt are the most mysterious act on this tape, and their contributions are titled “Noises Made by Cacti Growing Inside an Alien Hothouse” and “A Ram Sang Under Water”. Those only sound like part of what’s going on, though, but it’s really hard to describe what else is happening. The pieces are much more collage-y and dream-like than the rest of the tape, filled with distant voices and telekinesis and transparency and sudden, alarming shifts. The whole tape is a really good mix of brain-marinating confusion.
April 2, 2017 at 7:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Exael: Miche tape
It starts deep, then it gets deeper. The type of techno that belongs on a tape, not a record. But much of it doesn’t have beats. The drone pieces sound like swimming in three or four rivers at once. Very disorienting, but something still seems to be consistently pulling you along. Evil robot cats purring. Creaking droids spying me from the ceiling. Disappearing into a mirror. Then there’s deconstructed beats flittering away, and bass grinding away in circles. I have a headache right now and I don’t feel like forcing more thoughts out of my head but this is a seriously incredible tape. Still available at
Bandcamp.
April 2, 2017 at 6:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Fletcher Pratt: Dub Sessions Vol. 3 tape
With a loose framework of dub reggae, Fletcher Pratt dives deep into cosmic mind soup with this tape. Much of it is more like electro-acoustic music with a beat, filled with chattering voices and seismic tonal shifts. Even though there’s palm trees on the cover, it’s not relaxed tropical chill-out music. It’s actually a lot colder and more barren than you might expect. The second side is a slow drizzle of melted tapes and downcast vibrations. Dub rarely sounds this sad or despondent.
maybe it isn’t really dub? It’s an other. Not for anyone who wants their spirits lifted, but otherwise, tune in on
Bandcamp.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 