The Answer Is In The Beat

Pinkcourtesyphone: Please Pick Up (IO Sound, 2013)

November 17, 2013 at 8:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pinkcourtesyphone: Please Pick Up

Remix album of sound installation artist Richard Chartier’s newest project. Plenty of dark, minimal, throbbing industrialist space-drone, but a few of the remixers add more rhythmic elements. Frank Bretschneider adds a slowly growing 4/4 thump to his rework of “An Awaiting Room”, turning it into hissy Porter Ricks-y minimal techno. Sandwell District/Opal Tapes/Line affiliate Yves De Mey turns in a seriously deep, seriously stunning rework of “Singularity Version”, with rumbling bass tones, curdling static, and precise sheets of rhythmic static panning through the speakers. Pjusk’ “Pinkcourtesypjusk” is a nice, crisp, crackly little piece of steady, minimalist IDM. Simon Scott’s remix of “A Dark Room Full Of Plastic Plants” is shimmering drone, which slowly gets colder and more distant. In the album’s second half, Chartier collaborates quite unexpectedly with King Congo Powers, who adds spoken vocals to “Iamaphotograph”, which rides a slow automaton 4/4 beat and camera clicks. Creepy Autograph (AKA Jimmy Edgar) remixes this into a tense, buzzy orb, with Kid Congo’s vocals sounding ever more distorted and sinister. Onetime Coil associate CoH cuts “Iamaphotograph” further into an excellent sliced, fragmented rhythmic glitch-beat track, with stark piano upping the fright factor. S* and Tomas Phillips minimalize the track even further, mostly just keeping the camera flash noises and stretching out a dubby, clicky sinewave pulse beat. The album ends with “Move To Trash”, featuring Kid Congo’s distorted, disembodied voice intoning over another hypnotic, gazing minimal beat with shaker-like sounds. Spaced out, electrified sounds, perfectly complemented by the gorgeous space-themed artwork, which features a gatefold with a 3D cutout that holds the disc.

Nils Frahm: Spaces (Erased Tapes, 2013)

November 17, 2013 at 12:54 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Nils Frahm: Spaces

Collection of live recordings from Berlin composer (which means watch for applause at the end/beginning of tracks). Definitely enjoying this way more than any other recordings I’ve heard by him. “An Aborted Beginning” is a short dub intro, then “Says” is a seriously fantastic Berlin School-ish minimalist synthesizer piece, which just keeps growing and getting more intense and beautiful. “Said And Done” starts very repetitively, just plunking on one note for a minute and a half before the melody starts playing over the one note which continues in the background. “Went Missing” is a quieter, simpler, shorter piano piece. “Familiar” seems a little more spacey/echoey. “Improvisation For Coughs and a Cell Phone” starts with unintelligible speaking, a cough, and then rapid clusters of piano notes. “Hammers” is a fast, rollicking, arpeggiating piano piece, with a bit of wordless vocals singing along toward the end. “For – Peter – Toilet Brushes – More” is an incredible multi-part suite, starting with big epic synths, then going into knocking percussion after 7 minutes, leading the way into staccato piano notes, which get more expressive and eventually gain some dubby echo so some of the notes repeat in rhythm. “Over There, It’s Raining” is a shorter, more impressionistic piano piece. “Unter – Tristana – Ambre” is another long piano suite, but doesn’t get as intense as previous pieces. “Ross’s Harmonium” is a beautiful, fragile harmonium drone, with a softly pulsing rhythm. Frahm mentions in the liner notes how all of the recordings were made with different mediums in different places and different situations, making it like a field recording album, and that there’s no room to fix any mistakes once you’re performing live. So there’s definitely a bit of looseness that isn’t quite present with a controlled, perfected studio recording, but it still sounds pretty intensely constructed and skillfully performed.

Show #215 – 11/16/13

November 16, 2013 at 4:22 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

3:02 AM Nils Frahm ~ Says ~ Spaces ~ Erased Tapes
3:10 AM Pinkcourtesyphone ~ Singularity Version (Yves De Mey Rework) ~ Please Pick Up ~ IO Sound
3:18 AM Jensen Sportag ~ Rain Code (Fennesz Remix) ~ mp3 ~ Cascine
3:26 AM The Dead C ~ Armed ~ Armed Courage ~ Ba Da Bing
3:48 AM Swans ~ Oxygen ~ Not Here/Not Now ~ Young God
3:55 AM Gnaw ~ Worm ~ Horrible Chamber ~ Seventh Rule
4:03 AM Boyzone [the noise group, not the boy band] ~ Roxanne [excerpt] ~ Menarche ~ Hot Releases
4:12 AM Melt-Banana ~ Infection Defective ~ Fetch ~ A-Zap
4:16 AM BLÆRG ~ Hyperreligiosity ~ New Era ~ Bottle Imp
4:19 AM Longmont Potion Castle ~ Turtle Pleasure ~ LPC 10 ~ D.U. Records
4:25 AM VVAQRT ~ Hyssopeq ~ Than On Eother And You Have 0 Answers ~ Hot Releases
4:27 AM VVAQRT ~ Tanner ~ Than On Eother And You Have 0 Answers ~ Hot Releases
4:35 AM Outer Limits Recordings ~ Burnin Through The Nite ~ 7″ ~ Olde English Spelling Bee
4:39 AM Monster Rally ~ Lovely You ~ Return To Paradise ~ Gold Robot
4:41 AM Ezra Buchla ~ Black Rabbit ~ split 7″ w/ Whitman ~ Folktale
4:45 AM Cousins ~ Abdicator ~ Bathhouse ~ Bridgetown
4:51 AM Dot Wiggin Band ~ Your Best Friend ~ Ready! Get! Go! ~ Alternative Tentacles
4:56 AM Group Rhoda ~ Space Race ~ 12th House ~ Not Not Fun
5:03 AM Machinedrum ~ Rise N Fall ~ Vapor City ~ Ninja Tune
5:08 AM Daniel Bortz ~ Bright ~ Patchwork Memories ~ Suol
5:11 AM Special Request ~ Ride VIP ~ Soul Music ~ Houndstooth
5:19 AM DJ Rashad ~ I’m Too Hi ~ Double Cup ~ Hyperdub
5:26 AM Alec Empire ~ Suicide ~ The Destroyer ~ DHR
5:34 AM KILN ~ Kopperkosmo ~ Meadow:Watt ~ Ghostly International
5:41 AM Laurel Halo ~ Chance Of Rain ~ Chance Of Rain ~ Hyperdub
5:48 AM Unicorn Hard-On ~ Houndstooth ~ Weird Universe ~ Spectrum Spools
5:54 AM Ron Morelli ~ Fake Rush ~ Spit ~ Hospital Productions

Longmont Potion Castle: 10 (D.U. Records, 2013)

November 10, 2013 at 11:44 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Longmont Potion Castle: 10

Returning to digital-only after the first-ever full-length LPC vinyl release, here’s another album of lambs, deadpan taunting, preposterous UPS deliveries, 3-way phone mayhem, and thrash metal, via Skype. Most relevant to my location, Mr. LPC poses as someone from DTE and calls people telling them he’s going to turn their heat up to 110 degrees for testing. He starts off calling a candy store, who says that this will melt all their product. Then he calls a bunch of other people telling them to same thing, and they get belligerent, so he claims to be charging them for non-compliance. At one point he interjects “do you even know there’s a new pope?” “Liquor Outlet” finds him doing his classic vocal manipulation and playing with words, and confusing the hell out of someone at some store. “Interloper’s Probation” is the saga of a disturbed, cranky, racist old man who lives in a motel. Elsewhere, he adds synths and drum machines to his calls, resulting in a hilarious “What You Peepin’?” song for about 10 seconds, which gets met with a “what are you saying?” and a hangup. He asks a liquor store for 100 limes, and claims to be from Yelp.com and offers to change someone’s negative feedback into positive for $800. Oh, and there’s the one where he calls a record store asking for Turtle Pleasure and Solomon Gumball. “I’m at the KFC just catty-corner to ya.” He calls people claiming to be their neighbor, and tells them to quiet down, and the first person seems to actually comply with him. There’s also a disturbed, violent-minded man who really hates the president, and a montage of phone greetings, and (as a bonus track) the crazy living in a motel talking to Alex Trebek. Maybe a bit too much 3-way calls this time (they mostly just end up being several minutes of “hello?” “hello?” “no, you called me” “oh this must be a mistake” “ok bye” and not much more), but still, if you love LPC, you need this, obviously. Someone uploaded it to Youtube somewhere but you can buy the mp3s here.

Quttinirpaaq: Let’s Hang Out LP (Rural Isolation Project, 2013)

November 9, 2013 at 11:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Quttinirpaaq: Let’s Hang Out LP

Hyper-distorted noise-rock from Austin. Very sludgy and blown-out. Some traces of vocals, but they’re swirly and flanged and completely unintelligible. Shorter tracks are more noise interludes. “Chinese Hercules” is basically a tumbling riff and drums repeating endlessly with crazy distortion. “Stork” is more uptempo, almost dancey, and has really out-of-control distorted vocals and ends suddenly. “Man Without A Body” is a slow thumpy mega-corroded-distorted splintered techno-ish track, very much like Henry & Hazel Slaughter. “A Golden Sheriff” is backwards mellotrons and beats. “Vamos A Matar Santana” is more of a midtempo sludgy groove, with wailing feedback flying everywhere. “Cop Boner” is more trashy sludgy and noisy with another midtempo beat and vocals that just bleed into everything else. “Let Merv Drive” is another long repetitive groover, but seems a little bit less blown-out than the rest. There’s even some tambourine along with the beat, and a little bit more structure to the arrangement (and another sudden ending). “Old Whisky Shoes” sounds like it could be a cover of a Porter Ricks track, with a minimal thumping beat and some dubby echo, covered in a layer of amp buzz. “A Secret History Of Belgian Dog Owners” is 2 minutes of troubled mellotron covered in hair-raising feedback distortion (and yet another sudden ending). Seriously a scorching album! Available at Bandcamp.

Show #214 – 11/9/13

November 9, 2013 at 10:37 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

Mic break music = Martin Denny: Hypnotique & Exotica Vol. III

3:00 AM Kiln ~ Moth And Moon ~ Meadow:Watt ~ Ghostly International
3:07 AM Ducktails ~ Jazz ~ Wish Hotel ~ Domino
3:10 AM People Like Us ~ Crazy ~ Don’t Think Right, It’s All Twice ~ Cutting Hedge
3:12 AM The Big Ship ~ The Silver Standard ~ A Circle Is Forever ~ Hausu Mountain
3:19 AM Circuit Des Yeux ~ My Name Is Rune ~ Overdue ~ Ba Da Bing
3:24 AM Swans ~ Kirstin Supine (demo) ~ Not Here/Not Now ~ Young God
3:30 AM SSLEEPERHOLD ~ Ashes ~ Ruleth ~ Holodeck
3:35 AM Snowy Red ~ Breakdown ~ The Ultimate Edition 1980-1984 ~ OnsterStroom
3:39 AM Bad Party ~ Star Children ~ 7″ ~ Modern Ape
3:44 AM Gesaffelstein ~ Wall Of Memories ~ Aleph ~ Parlophone Music France
3:47 AM Quicksails ~ Lost It, Methinks ~ 2012 Tusco/Embassy Christmas Tape ~ Tusco/Embassy
3:52 AM Milanese ~ Mr Bad News (Clark Remix) ~ Feast/Beast ~ Warp
4:01 AM Quttinirpaaq ~ Man Without A Body ~ Let’s Hang Out ~ Rural Isolation Project
4:06 AM Amino Acids ~ Coaxial Fludder ~ Theme From The Slack Hole 7″ ~ Bellyache/Weirdsville
4:09 AM Author & Punisher ~ In Remorse ~ Women & Children ~ Seventh Rule
4:13 AM Forest Swords ~ Onward ~ Engravings ~ Tri Angle
4:19 AM Mole House ~ At My Cuffs ~ 7″ ~ All Gone
4:23 AM The Bug ~ Dirty ~ Zen: A Ninja Tune/Big Dada Sampler 2013 ~ Ninja Tune/Big Dada
4:26 AM M.I.A. ~ aTENTion ~ Matangi ~ Interscope
4:40 AM Jon Barba ~ Twenty Ten ~ Sleep 7″ ~ Folktale
4:43 AM Captain Ahab ~ Sk8ter Boi ~ Smashed 40: Slummer Jams ~ Folktale
4:47 AM Crash Course In Science ~ Jump Over Barrels ~ Metal Dance 2 ~ Strut
4:50 AM Guitar Red ~ Disco From A Space Show ~ Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 ~ Chocolate Industries
4:54 AM Manuvers & Yarlen ~ Get Up ~ The Drive Home ~ Pugilista Trading
5:03 AM DJ Rashad featuring Spinn & Taso ~ Feelin ~ Double Cup ~ Hyperdub
5:07 AM Special Request ~ Capsules ~ Soul Music ~ Houndstooth
5:11 AM Omar Souleyman ~ Ya Yumma ~ Wenu Wenu ~ Ribbon
5:15 AM William Onyeabor ~ Let’s Fall In Love ~ World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor? ~ Luaka Bop
5:23 AM Cheikh Mohamed Riffi ~ Sidi M’Bark (Mr. M’Bark) ~ Kassidat: Raw 45s From Morocco ~ Dust-To-Digital
5:34 AM J. Holmes Productions ~ Introduce Me (instrumental) ~ Woodward’s Gardens ~ Up Late Records
5:38 AM Clearcut ~ Medicine ~ Messages ~ Boont
5:44 AM Autechre ~ newbound ~ L-event ~ Warp
5:50 AM Unicorn Hard-On ~ Quizz ~ Weird Universe ~ Spectrum Spools
5:57 AM Prince Rama ~ Feel It Again ~ Esopus #20: Personal Effects ~ Esopus Magazine

Crush Collision 11/7/13

November 8, 2013 at 12:13 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

10:01 PM The Field ~ A Guided Tour
10:09 PM Sau Poler ~ Rutes
10:13 PM Deepchord ~ Amsterdam Remnant 6
10:19 PM Olekranon ~ Apollo
10:22 PM Ron Morelli ~ Crack Microbes
10:25 PM The Cyclist ~ Bones In Motion
10:31 PM Classixx ~ A Fax From The Beach
10:36 PM Sally Shapiro ~ What Can I Do (Young Galaxy Remix)
10:39 PM Group Rhoda ~ Coral Castle
10:43 PM Recondite ~ Stems
10:48 PM JTC ~ Alpha Helix
10:52 PM Audion ~ Motormouth
10:58 PM Floorplan ~ Phobia
11:04 PM Hieroglyphic Being ~ Nidhamu (HuKuMu Version)
11:09 PM Special Request ~ Lolita (Warehouse Mix)
11:15 PM Four Tet ~ Buchla
11:18 PM Gesaffelstein ~ Duel
11:22 PM Akkord ~ Navigate
11:25 PM Call Super ~ Informer
11:33 PM Dronelock ~ Excursions
11:35 PM Eagles For Hands ~ Sunclap
11:40 PM Factory Floor ~ Here Again
11:47 PM Laurel Halo ~ Ainnome
11:52 PM Vatican Shadow ~ Remember Your Black Day
11:57 PM Rene Roussel ~ Caramel

Kiln: Meadow:Watt (Ghostly International, 2013)

November 7, 2013 at 8:18 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Kiln: Meadow:Watt

Longtime Ghostly staples Kiln (aka Fibreforms, Waterwheel, Waterwheel • Windmill) have a pretty sizable discography of releases, mostly on small, defunct labels. Their style is mellow, exploratory, and free-flowing but structured, with squishy beats as well as live percussion, dubby bass, melodic guitar, and samples. “Pinemarten” slinks around slowly with flute/mellotron-type sounds. “Star.field” is more uptempo, slapping a beat around like chewing gum, and grooving along to a smooth but alert bassline. “Kopperkosmo” has another slow, pixelated dub pulse, with carefully controlled, yet fractured and echoing bass tones. “Moth and Moon” covers waltz-tempo drum beats in static fuzz, and adding bits of noir-ish strings and guitar for dramatic emphasis. “Jux” has another blown-out, disheveled groove, and “Acre” has a bit more of a playful pep in its step, but still remains humble and mysterious. “Boro” ends the album with walloping drums and more mellotron-ish sounds, and continually moves to brighter pastures as the song progresses. Another great album from a truly creative and somewhat under-recognized band.

Show #213 – 11/2/13

November 2, 2013 at 5:58 pm | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

3:00 AM Clearcut ~ Depends On You ~ Messages ~ Boont
3:12 AM Boards Of Canada ~ Dawn Chorus ~ Geogaddi ~ Warp
3:16 AM Autechre ~ tac Lacora ~ L-event ~ Warp
3:23 AM Ryan Jewell ~ Eschew Obfuscation (excerpt) ~ Eschew Obfuscation; Espouse Elucidation ~ Hot Releases
3:30 AM Lonnie Holley ~ The Start of a River’s Run (One Drop) ~ Keeping A Record Of It ~ Dust-To-Digital
3:37 AM Rites Wild ~ Ill Health ~ Ways Of Being ~ Not Not Fun
3:41 AM Gunter Schickert ~ Puls ~ Uberfallig ~ Bureau B
3:55 AM Russian Circles featuring Chelsea Wolfe ~ Memorial ~ Memorial ~ Sargent House
4:03 AM DJ Rashad featuring Addison Groove ~ Acid Bit ~ Double Cup ~ Hyperdub
4:06 AM Unicorn Hard-On ~ Night Diamond ~ Weird Universe ~ Spectrum Spools
4:11 AM Policy ~ Wiseblood ~ Postscript ~ 100% Silk
4:18 AM Ryan Hemsworth ~ Happiness & Dreams Forever ~ Guilt Trips ~ Last Gang
4:19 AM Toro Y Moi ~ Campo ~ 7″ ~ Carpark
4:24 AM The Garment District ~ Sullivan’s Island ~ Esopus #20: Personal Effects ~ Esopus Magazine
4:28 AM Pigeons ~ Radio Souvenir ~ Hearts 7″ ~ Olde English Spelling Bee
4:32 AM Pjusk ~ Dorsk ~ SMM: Opiate ~ Ghostly International
4:39 AM Merzbow ~ Gran 1 ~ Samidara ~ Placenta Recordings
4:46 AM Jefferson Mayday Mayday ~ Into The Gardens ~ G Threshold ~ Hot Releases
4:53 AM Xanopticon ~ Angelofdebt ~ Sidetracked ~ Mode Of Proof
4:54 AM Sylvain Chauveau ~ A_ (Remix) ~ Abstractions ~ flau
4:58 AM Washed Out ~ Exit ~ 7″ ~ Sub Pop
5:01 AM New Weather ~ Slip ~ New Weather ~ Butterscotch Records
5:05 AM Miracle ~ Mercury ~ Mercury ~ Planet Mu
5:10 AM The Pink Noise ~ Greedy Heart ~ Greedy Heart ~ Skrot Up
5:15 AM Inspector 22 ~ Pole Position ~ Passin’ Time ~ Hot Releases
5:17 AM Knotted Cord ~ Mineral Creatures ~ Heavy Minerals ~ self-released
5:20 AM Teaadora ~ Following The Sound ~ Virgin Forever ~ Hot Releases
5:25 AM Jeff Rehnlund ~ Amir ~ Smoke From The Mirror ~ Hot Releases
5:30 AM Tim Hecker ~ Stab Variation ~ Virgins ~ Kranky
5:36 AM The Meets ~ Today Grew Dark ~ It Happens Outside ~ My Idea Of Fun
5:39 AM Narong Namchai ~ Pha Hom Hua Chai (Blanket For The Heart) ~ Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s From The Thai Countryside ~ Dust-To-Digital
5:42 AM Matana Roberts ~ River Ruby Dues ~ Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile ~ Constellation
5:47 AM Public Service Broadcasting ~ Night Mail ~ Inform – Educate – Entertain ~ Test Card Recordings
5:50 AM Factory Floor ~ How You Say ~ Factory Floor ~ DFA
5:57 AM Hutton School Choir ~ Don’t Drink And Drive ~ Classroom Projects ~ Trunk

Crush Collision 10/31/13

November 1, 2013 at 9:27 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

Hour 1
10:01 PM Ron Morelli ~ No Real Reason
10:06 PM The Field ~ Black Sea
10:16 PM Tigerskin & Till Von Sein ~ 7477
10:18 PM House Of Black Lanterns ~ Broken (_Unsubscribe_ Remix)
10:23 PM Laurel Halo ~ Serendip
10:28 PM Olekranon ~ Delusor
10:32 PM Plaster ~ Signals From A Gold Sky
10:38 PM Booka Shade ~ Maifeld
10:42 PM JTC ~ Alpha Helix
10:47 PM Special Request ~ Vapour
10:51 PM Call Super ~ Threshing Floor
10:58 PM Hieroglyphic Being ~ A Morphic Resonance
Hour 2
11:04 PM Crimea X ~ A Present (Legowelt Remix)
11:08 PM Garnetta with Hakim Murphy ~ Phase 1
11:12 PM DJ Nasty ~ Cruisin’ Down 7 Mile (OktoRed Remix)
11:16 PM wordlife ~ Small Talk (Doc Daneeka DTW Remix)
11:21 PM Factory Floor ~ Two Different Ways
11:28 PM Akkord ~ Compound
11:33 PM Boundary ~ Long Story Short
11:41 PM D-Knox & Spiritman ~ Fornicate
11:46 PM Four Tet ~ Aerial
11:52 PM Floorplan ~ Higher! (Ben Sims Remix)
11:55 PM Mount Kimbie ~ You Took Your Time (Kyle MF Hall DVO Dub)