It has been for over twenty years that Markus Popp has been releasing material through Thrill Jockey and still his desire to keep advancing electronic-based music keeps him ahead of the pack. He has been recording and releasing music now for nearly thirty years as Oval and also as part of Microstoria, but each new instalment finds him upping his game.
Oval is just Markus now, and that gives him the opportunity to work on the pieces over long periods, weaving them together like fine tapestries. There is more than a hint of club culture here, infused into the awkward and disjointed textures that are at the heart of the tracks. Shearing schisms of sound shriek over the top of a more laid-back vibe on opener “Twirror”, which suddenly kicks into a flustered floor-filler, the vista opening to an immense Euro-barn, thousands of revellers with their arms aloft. But here the DJ is more auteur than good-vibe merchant, and is less interested in the euphoric end result down below than in the patchwork of sounds that he is piecing together from the depths of his mind.
His years of experimentation have produced and incredibly varied sound palette, and there must be tens of thousands of sound clips from which he can construct the bones here, not to mention the myriad of instruments he can use to fill in any gaps. The dynamic of the dance floor is always peering discreetly over his shoulder and the dichotomy of what pushes a track into dance territory is tickling his interest. That hinterland between the two different camps dissolves as any pretensions are dropped and the piece begins to really move. There is room to marvel at the juggling of sounds and the construction of moods.
It is never very easy. A regular beat will be jostled by more random elements that are jarring and harsh as you sense a rush developing in the background. However, that rush never detracts from the fascinating awkwardness, and ends up as a tour de force of moods and sounds evoked by electronic manipulation. Some tracks apparently took months to produce and it feels like the musical equivalent of stop-motion animation or an enormous patchwork quilt of ideas, Markus searching for the perfect sample to drop into a particular work in progress, filling a gap or provoking a reaction. The vocal samples in “Mikk” give areal science fiction feel, but mixed with dulcimer samples, it chops and changes with malfunctioning printer elements fighting for supremacy in the swirling soup.
Oval’s thirst for merging new sounds never ends and perhaps this patient way of working enables the wide variety of results. I imagine Markus like some kind of chef with sauces galore, all boiling away on different stoves, searching for that one extra ingredient that will finish each one and lend them a unique taste; an angry buzz, an orchestral sweep, the hollow thud of boots on the floor. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but those flavours will be unforgettable and will be the vanguard of things to come.-Mr Olivetti-
