The Answer Is In The Beat

Schnellertollermeier: Rights (Cuneiform, 2017)

February 24, 2018 at 10:21 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Cuneiform has announced that they’re no longer going to be releasing new music after being one of the very best sources of experimental music (especially avant-prog and jazz) for over three decades. Part of their final batch of releases is this fourth album from instrumental trio Schnellertollermeier, which is a smushed-together amalgamation of the band members’ last names (one of which is actually Troller, probably no relation to the Austin band of the same name). Their music is very precise and considered, building up from locked-in patterns and seeing how far out they can stretch. It all seems to be played on a standard guitar-bass-drums trio configuration, but there’s some effects added, making the guitars flange and stutter. Of the four tracks, the first and last are over 10 minutes each, and the longer this band plays, the more convoluted and off-the-rails they get. The whole album sounds fresh and exciting, and the band consistently defy expectations at every turn.

William Price: Rush Hour (Ablaze Records, 2017)

February 19, 2018 at 1:04 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Mind-altering electro-acoustic works from Birmingham composer William Price, inspired by abstract art, literature, and everyday scenarios. Lots of granular processing and manipulation of voices and instruments, transforming the sounds entirely; dipping them in acid, making them sharper and jagged, making them wet and bubbly. His usage of voices, particularly in “2 Days in the Tank” (which has a particularly liquid-like feel, and is based on manipulations of the title of Charles Bukowski’s The Drunk Tank Judge) and the especially otherworldly “Spline”, are incredibly haunting, blurring and distorting the lines between the familiar and unfamiliar. Brief pieces are alternated with longer, more ambitious ones, and two of them focus on non-electronic instruments. “Sans Titre V” is a lengthy piece for amplified cello, which constnatly shifts between more graceful, melodic sections, abrasive interjections, and silence, with a chilly glow of reverb over everything. “Rush Hour” is a three-movement piece featuring tenor saxophone, which interacts with Price’s electro-acoustics. At times they alter the saxophone, and at one point (during the first movement) they end up forming a fast, jazzy rhythm perfect for zipping along the highways. The short piece “WOOSH” is apparently based on notes originally played by a toy saxophone, recorded using ProTools and manipulated using granular synthesis software. Price’s sound design is consistently impressive, and the compositions are all entertaining as well as thought-provoking.

Ω▽ (Ohmslice): Conduit LP (Imaginator Records, 2017)

February 19, 2018 at 11:51 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This NY-based improv ensemble utilizes two drummers, one of which is fed through a modular synthesizer, courtesy of Bradford Reed (who was in King Missile!!!), inventor of what he calls the pencilina. On several tracks, Jane LeCroy delivers stream-of-consciousness poetry over all of this, reminding me of Lydia Tomkiw (Algebra Suicide) but with more of an acerbic edge, and with a freer sense of dynamics. She sing-songs about wanting to get away by any means necessary on opening track “Crying on a Train”, and “Get Matter” is more free-associative and ponders the infinite complexities of the universe, but ultimately determines that “you don’t matter” in a cold, punishing, matter-of-fact way. “Gravity” sounds like it has a didgeridoo but it doesn’t, it must be the magical, sound-transforming powers of the pencilina. After the dark ambient rumblings of “Rusty Ground” is the ominous yet free, unforced doom-jazz of “Paint by Numbered Days”. Closing instrumental “Ohm’s Awe” is like some strange complex structure come to life and lifting off the ground, rotating and emitting wonderful music.

Tatira: The Light Will Disappear CDr (Inam Records, 2018)

February 18, 2018 at 1:25 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The latest Inam Records release may be the first one that I’ve seen arrive in a standard CD jewel case. The artwork is bright white with clear lettering, and much of the music is also surprisingly accessible. It combines drone and techno the way other recent Inam releases have, but the majority of the tracks here are punchy and somewhat shiny and polished. There’s even something approaching chords to some of them, and bits of new wave and progressive house elements. At least compared to some of the more dour Inam releases, this is a lot sunnier and brighter-sounding. “All Is Seen” goes on for nine minutes, and it gradually picks up a growling bass lump which sneaks up on you, and can be quite terrifying if you’re driving. Like a lot of these tracks, this one stops suddenly and dovetails into the next one. Some tracks are fully ambient (“The Absentee”, “Son of Machines”), but then there’s other lengthy beat-driven ones, like “Merciful Tyrant”. “Tunnels” is a bit darker and lonelier than most of the other tracks, and it could easily keep going and building for a lot longer than the 3 minutes it gets here. The album ends with the sparse, shimmering drone “The Light Will Disappear”, suggesting that maybe the next release will return to murk, fuzziness, and malaise. Free DL at Bandcamp.

Hans Tammen & Dark Circuits Bunker Orchestra: Ten Minutes Late With No Bus In Sight And No Taxi Either (Gold Bolus, 2017)

February 10, 2018 at 10:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Lengthy compositions played by a gigantic orchestra of synths (including Euroracks, a random tone generator, and a modified Moog Etherwave Theremin) as well as some very unhinged, impulsive drumming. Tammen is credited with “concept, composing, binary conducting”. There’s clear guidance to these recordings; it’s obvious that someone is telling the musicians when to be calm and when to explode and go crazy. When the drums get manic and the synths swell and saturate, it all provides an ultraviolet head rush. Probably the best track overall is “Kafka’s Hat”, a pretty thorough mix of heavy rhythms, musique concrete-like synth-work, and outer space overdrive. “Black Magic and Its Full Expose” is nearly 18 minutes, and interrupts interstellar voyagery with brief moments of far out, frenetic drumming which could’ve been recorded at some sort of carnival. The whole album is highly inventive and never predictable, and sounds like it was spontaneously created by humans in love with the possibilities of technology as well as intense, sprawling rhythms.

Bruce Russell: Metallic OK (Glass Redux, 2017)

February 10, 2018 at 8:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Bruce Russell’s solo material is generally even further out than his work with the Dead C. Rather than making an ungodly racket in a rock band format, his solo work tends to focus on limited sets of weird sounds, and wringing them for all they’re worth. He’ll tune his guitars the way bluesmen like Skip James did, then he’ll play them with knives or other devices not normally associated with music-making. Much of this was recorded live, and you can imagine the audience felt like they were being constantly zapped by high-voltage electrodes, but there’s no way they could possibly turn away or escape. Some tracks eschew guitars, instead using field recordings, metal bowls, and other sound sources. “Electro-magnetic Feedback Study #1 (Strange House in the Snow)” seems to blur the lines between radio and guitar feedback. “Woodchopping (Way On Up, Till the Sun Go Down)” sounds like, well, chopping wood; it’s almost like he’s hacking a guitar to bits and burying it in the dirt, and recording it all with contact mics. The last track (“Excerpt from ‘Motorboeating'”) is the longest one, and it’s the one where everything feels like it’s being consumed in a toxic meltdown.

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.