Abstract Q – Selected Frequencies For Unrepressed Neural Events Label: Staalplaat Open Circuit Format: CD-R Following on from his time in Abstract Quadrant and Neural Coital, Valerio Zucca Paul pursues the Ambient electronic strand in this collection of electronic doodles. The textures range from bleeps and chimes into more vertiginous compositions of hypnotic loops and electronic ghost trails; with titles like “Dream Machine” and “Landscape Out Of Focus”, […]
Bablicon – The Cat That Was A Dog/A Flat Inside A Fog : Label: Pickled Egg Format: CD This is an album which contains a wealth of ideas, some of which I hope will be developed further in future work. Their instrumental combinations are inventive as are the range of collage and improvisational techniques which make up the CD. When I heard the first track I thought of […]
Mira Calix – One On One Label: Warp Format: CD,2LP This record rocks, thats the simple way to put it. Other record labels must hate the way Warp casually goes about releasing albums that are just so damn good. One on One is the debut album of South African Chantal Passamonte, AKA Mira Calix, recorded in the seclusion of relatively icy Sheffield where she goes about her musical […]
Dakar And Grinser – I Wanna Be Your Dog Label: Disko B Format: 12″ Those Electro funsters Dakar & Grinser are at it again, this time ripping into one of the most covered of all songs. It turns out that “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is a prime candidate for the drum machine and 303 pulse treatment. D&G add in some shimmering end of the century shimmers, some old […]
Eardrum – Last Light Label: Leaf Format: CD,LP Eardrum is the percussion-led project of Richard Olatunde Baker and Lou Ciccotelli, and makes some heavyweight ventures into rhythm and texture, assisted by guests Nana Tsiboe, Gary Jeff, Matt Barge and Ike Leo. The live studio recordings are dubbed up into ten tracks of Afrocentric Electronica, following routes mapped out by the likes of African Head Charge, 23 Skiddoo and […]
Fabriquedecouleurs – Imite Moi Label: Dorodine Format: CD Emmanuel Allard, AKA Fabriquedecouleurs, revels in jagged sounds and digital distortion. At points his music is harsh and distorted, a chaotic barrage of abrasive static crackles and aggressive shortwave squeals. Keyboards pushed to the point where they sound like a guitar feeding back in front of a stack of speakers. At other points it is delicate, silence punctuated by scratches […]
Kenneth Gaburo – Five Works For Voices, Instruments, And Electronics Label: New World Format: CD Voices and instruments are phrased in very strange intervals, giving the appearance of the cut-up – but, as we all know, it’s all in how you say it. Horns, brass, voice, etc. Like wandering through a dark wood, the sounds pop out at odd angles, linger for odd times and is there a […]
H: – Group Tracks Label: Black + White Records Format:12″ “Bushwacker” took a little time to grow on me. My first thoughts were don`t do much does it, then I realised just what this slab’s purpose is. It builds up & up & up. This isn`t the kind of record you`d consider listening to on its own. It begs for a set of decks, and makes a killing […]
Jackie O Motherfucker – Change Label: Textile Format: CD,LP The first time I heard the CD I fell asleep around the end of “Bus Stop”, the fifth track, and that’s not a meant to be a negative response to the music. It just has a strangely lulling quality about it. There is a lo-fi feel to this track which combines a range of instruments in a rising/falling, open-ended […]
Icarus – Misfits Label: Output Format: CD Icarus, AKA Ollie Bown and Sam Britton, are back with the successor to last years Squid Ink album. Misfits is ultra-chilled ambience with heavy glitch content. I didn’t see any trace of a track listing for the six tracks on the CD, so any references I make will be rather vague. That’s not totally inappropriate, though. Part of Misfit‘s charm is […]
Brandon LaBelle & Steve Roden – The Opening Of The Field Label: Digital Narcis Format: CD One theory holds that picking at scabs or otherwise excoriating the body = self-loathing. What about the pinching and pulling at strands of nature? A dwarfing talcum hum of lighthouse proportions whiles away the background. A gentle tapping at the glass – competition with the laser-bounced CD itself? Oh, that rubberband […]
Angus Maclaurin – Glass Music Label: Bubble Core Format: CD Remember the mysterious sounds of finger-rimming wine glasses as a kid, how it hummed, and how it was so difficult to get that sound to be consistant and constant? Remember sitting at a dinner table, bored, beating on the water glasses with forks and knives until someone, probably your mum, had enough and insisted you stop. Remember stories […]
Neck Doppler – Future Hits Vol. 1 Label: Consume Format: CD Another very well-produced CDR – this one has the Consume label’s name printed out on that sticky tape with the raised letters, as used on many office products. It’s very clean, which counts these days, believe it or don’t. Echoey drums and vocals urgently exhort on to listen . The vocals are rudimentary, brutal; cut off suddenly […]
Vidna Obmana & Serge Devadder – The Shape Of Solitude – Suite For Electric Guitar, Atmospheres And Recycling Label: Multimood Format: CD Ah, how Swede…erm…suite it is… (Ouch – Ed.) Sound that often appears on the Hearts of Spa/gelbce broadcast (recently sacked from Los Angeles airwaves in favour of something called “Classical music”) manifests itself now. But what atmospheres do they mean? The sweatsoaked haze deceding carnal explosives? […]
Pacou – Symbolic Language Remixes Label: Tresor Format: 12″ Once again, we can rely on Tresor to der the goods. Think Jeff Mills, think Adam Beyer. Pacou is in that vein, with a slab of tough minimal techno. Symbolic Language Remixes is a belting EP, nasty hard and fucking groovesome. It sweats rhythm like a heavy weight boxer. “Texture # 1” wins it for me. It’s as dark […]
Radio Savage Houndy Beasty – Millennium Buggery Label: RSHB Format: CD Superb. Millennium Buggery has moments of inspired genius. Radio Savage Houndy Beasty broadcasts a mixture of deranged DJing and audio absurdity once a week on Leeds Student Radio. Think of Monty Python on the Radio, or think of The Day Today or Brass Eye. Then add numerous songs done in the style of various personalities. “Singing in […]
QT?/Alejandra & Aeron – Split Label: Fat Cat Format: 12″ Thirteenth virus, this Split Series release is also called – quite appropriately for QT?‘s tracks, which mix down bleeps and glitches into something which sounds like the record player’s got a worm infection. With titles which progress mathematically from “qqq” via “?q?” to “???”, the nine pieces drive abstractly from snicker and blasted track-reformatting noise to whittled electronics […]
Rachael Sage – Painting Of A Painting Label: Mpress Format: CD I think Rachael Sage is on the verge of becoming something great. I don’t think that she’s necessarily reached that “great” point with this album, but you can already tell that she’s growing into something here. There’s just not enough confidence or strength in her voice at this point, though, and for the subject matter and the […]