The Answer Is In The Beat

Arrows: Voyage tape (Crash Symbols, 2015)

October 4, 2015 at 1:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Hobo Cubes-related project exploring disjointed beats and scattered moods. There’s longer pieces and shorter, fused-out interludes. Individual tracks remind me of Throbbing Gristle, early Pole, and various glitch artists. The last cut on side A is like an extremely shadowy, distant juke track. Another skittery yet glacial rhythm appears near the end of the second side. The tape continually drifts and morphs into something different, but it doesn’t seem schizophrenic or bipolar. Available on Bandcamp.

Sopko Laswell Pridgen: s/t (self-released, 2015)

October 3, 2015 at 7:56 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Demented avant-jazz-rock from the trio of guitarist Mike Sopko, bassist Bill Laswell, and drummer Thomas Pridgen, along with several guests including Anticon keyboardist Martin Dosh. Laswell’s signature rubbery, atmospheric bass sound is all over this, and Sopko’s guitars swarm, overpower, and attack, often sounding like there’s several of him playing at once. Pridgen’s drumming is similarly ecstatic and crashing. Together, the trio create a collision of sounds which feels fractured and frenetic, but actually has a remarkable flow to it. “Detroit” is far less cluttered and noisy than some of the other tracks, and has a sly funk groove as well as fluttering sax by Joshua Smith. The tracks with Martin Dosh on keyboards are noticeably more atmospheric, especially the drumless “Daybreak” (“Shades of Sunny Days”, without Dosh, has a similar effect, but is much tenser). “Praxis” is named after Laswell’s long-running project with Buckethead and Brain (among others), and has a similar hard-edged yet funky feel. A nice, wide-ranging collaboration.

Asmus Tietchens: Ornamente (zwischen Null und Eins) (Line, 2015)

October 3, 2015 at 5:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The latest album from legendary German experimental artist Asmus Tietchens consists of glacial, minimalist drones, as do many of his albums (particularly ones released on Richard Chartier’s Line label), but the first track features subtly shifting textures which at least faintly bring to mind some of his older, more industrial-ish works. Other tracks feel like icicles melting into strange noxious gases and dissipating. “Ornament 4” consists of a cluster of fluttery sounds mingling and whistling eerily, occasionally settling on an ominous hiss. “Ornament 5” is the album’s most serene moment, but there’s still a strange, haunted feeling to it, it’s hard to tell if that’s a voice buried underneath the rumbling bass drone. Transportive and otherwordly, as always.

Noah: Sivutie (flau, 2015)

October 3, 2015 at 5:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The latest release by Japanese label flau is an excursion into late night ethereal R&B from a vocalist named Noah. Her cooing vocals blend in with the pillowy, cloudlike atmospheric synths and downtempo beats, sometimes feeling like they’re dreamed or imagined rather than properly sung. Impossibly delicate, this is music that easily drifts away if you don’t stack a paperweight on it. It also seems to drift away from the R&B influence as it progresses, getting into some lightly noisy shoegaze textures on the stunning “Flaw”. “Tadzio” is a bittersweet storm cloud in which Noah’s voice is so airy it almost sounds like a ghost. Not to mention, naming a song “Gorgeous Death” wins points in my book.

Mamaleek: Via Dolorosa LP (The Flenser, 2015)

September 30, 2015 at 10:34 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The Flenser has been releasing plenty of great metal/not-metal in the past few years, and this album is another eye-opener. Boundary-pushing metal which sounds like it could have been recorded in a Transylvanian dungeon as well as a seedy New Orleans jazz club or a Crooklyn basement circa ’97 with Scotty Hard on the console. There’s harsh growling, but instead of being drowned out by walls of guitar noise or blastbeats, there’s damaged lo-fi rock, trippy beats or crunchy drums, restrained jazz guitar, and static-covered piano. It really, truly does not sound like any other record I’ve ever heard, and it’s awesome. I’m guessing this the only illbient jazz metal band in the world, but I am totally open to being proven wrong on that one. (Edit: Now that I think of it, that description reminds me of Praxis and a few other Bill Laswell projects, but this sounds leagues away from any of them to be honest. Anyway, just listen to it!)

Marianne Nowottny and the Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra: “Tomorrow Never Knows” b/w “Strawberry Fields Forever” 7″ single (Abaton Book Company, 2015)

September 26, 2015 at 2:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Veteran experimental pop artist goes to Ypsilanti and records faithful yet fresh-sounding covers of 2 of the trippiest Beatles songs, backed by an ensemble of saxophone and percussion players lead by Ben Miller, formerly of Destroy All Monsters. You may think you never need to hear another Beatles cover in your life, and you may be right, but these covers are both truly fantastic. The songs themselves are both obviously masterpieces, but the saxophones are arranged creatively, with some backwards effects and all manners of panning and dynamic control. And the thundering drums on “Strawberry Fields Forever”. And is she saying “I buried Paul” at the end? Awesome.

Ahleuchatistas: Arrebato (International Anthem Recording Co., 2015)

September 19, 2015 at 6:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Ahleuchatistas have been around for over a decade, releasing albums on Cuneiform and Tzadik as well as several smaller labels, and generally being sort of a well-kept secret in the noise-rock/math-rock underground. Once a trio, the group is now just the duo of Ryan Oslance (drums) and Shane Parish (guitar). This album is surprisingly more accessible and clean-sounding than anything else I’ve heard by them. There’s not as much harsh, thundering drums or complicated riffs or time signatures. “Rincon Pio Sound” is short, sweet, and positively heart-tugging. Other tracks are shimmering and repetitive, building sounds and excitedly splashing them into each other. “La Faena” features springing guitar effects which often sound like keyboards rather than guitars, and the 10-minute track takes a long time to end, hitting one big chord, letting it ring all the way out, and then hitting it again, several times over the last few minutes of the song. The album’s second half is a little rougher and more angular than the more melodic first half. “Shelter in Place” gets a little more furious and rumbling, and gets a bit woozy during the last couple minutes. “Erosion” seems to scramble and careen, never quite getting up on two legs and moving straightforward.