Jimi TenorIt has become a common pattern with me. I turn around and wonder how time goes by so fast... I used to write up bi-weekly rotations. And now it's been almost two months since my last installment. Nevertheless, I haven't been idle. First of all, I finally posted the long awaited Headphone Commute's Best of 2008 list. And a few weeks prior, I prefaced it with my Top 50 of 2007 revisit. There was also a post of my Ten Favorite Mixes of 2008 in case you missed it. Not to mention, a complete new site revamp with a whole new feature covering Label Profiles - first up with Chicago based Tympanik Audio! With this much output and a vacation in between, I am finally back on track for 2009, pumping out reviews in the same spirit. Here I present you with an installment of 16 writeups covering dubstep, breakcore, minimal techno, ambient shoegaze, psybient chillout, modern classical, experimental, rhythmic noise, and of course a few flashbacks! As usual, I would appreciate a comment or two, and would love it if you could Subscribe to RSS Feed. Visit the new site at headphonecommute.com !!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2562 - Aerial (Tectonic)
Twenty-five sixty-two is not just a postcode in The Netherlands' Den Hague - it is also an alias of its resident who is a prolific producer of dubstep, techno, and broken beat atmospherics. Dave Huismans's first full length release on Tectonic under 2562 moniker is titled Aerial. Tectonic is the same label that previously brought you the 12-inchers from Pinch, Skream, and Cyrus. On Aerial, Huismans layers dubbed out minor chords on top of the blowing wind of white noise and deep sub-bass enriched syncopated beats. The rhythm bounces between a Detroit-meets-Berlin techno sound and reverb heavy dubstep, creating tunes geared more towards home listening then as the fillers on the dance floor [not that hearing these tracks booming on a loud sound system would be unappealing].With his own personal style, Aerial is more of an album then a compilation of singles. The tracks work well together, wrapped around the concept the same way Burial delivered the unmistakable sound of Untrue. One thing for sure - this isn't the sound of London. That is to say, that it seems to have more in common with minimal dub techno then the filthy bass ridden dubstep hooks. Both styles are excellent - just depends what you're in the mood for at the moment. And this very instant, I need to be chilled out and at the same time warmed up, keeping the evil grin away. At the end everything is just a matter of taste. And there's only one way for you to find out.For more music from Huismans, check out his two side projects: a few EPs on Subsolo Records as A Made Up Sound; and earlier released jazzy broken beat EPs on the Dutch Flyin' High Records under Dogdaze alias. Recommended if you want to hear dubstep with some Modern Love and Basic Channel feel.
http://www.myspace.com/2562dub
http://www.myspace.com/tectonicrecordings
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLÆRG - Dysphoric Sonorities (Bottle Imp Productions)
Since the good ol' days of Squarepusher's jazzy idm breaks, laced with jungle flavored drill'n'bass, I've been nostalgic for that fading away sound. Even Venetian Snares modern-classical-meets-breakcore masterpiece, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (Planet Mu, 2005), is now almost four years old. Has the genre put on an angrier mask and turned to gabber-heavy random-triggered mayhem? Where are those melodically driven themes complimented by intelligent macro programmed precision percussion? Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Feel free to turn me in the right direction.Imagine my surprise when I landed on BLÆRG. This Ohio (US) based producer is everything mentioned above and more! [Yes, exclamation point is really necessary at this point]. Scott Wehman is not exactly a newcomer to the scene. Initially playing bass guitar for a few local metal bands, Wehman turned to producing electronica. With a few digital releases and a full length, Sesquipedalia (FromTheGut, 2007), Wehman joined Detroit stationed Bottle Imp Productions' roster, and opened up with a his sophomore album, Dysphoric Sonorities. Following this release he put out a very lovely limited EP [only 50 copies!], Auspices & Vagaries (Bottle Imp, 2008) and a collection of earlier tracks [presumably traded over the slsk network], Soulseek Days (Bottle Imp, 2008).On Dysphoric Sonorities, Wehman cleverly masters all of the beloved elements of intelligent breakcore - from jazzy keys, to bass slaps, to piano chords, to acoustic percussion drilled and glitched out to perfection. And there is enough evil in there to satisfy the angry rats scratching at the surface of the inside of my skull. Oh, and did I mentioned that production is top notch? Highly recommended along with the EP (if you are one of the lucky ones to get your dirty paws on it), if you like above mentioned names, plus Xanopticon, The Flashbulb, Enduser, Igorrr and Wisp.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Blaerg
http://www.myspace.com/blaerg | http://www.fromthegut.org/blaerg
http://www.myspace.com/bottleimpproductions | http://www.bottle-imp.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ø - Oleva (Sähkö)
OlevaYou would think that by being one of the prominent sound engineers and pioneers in experimental music since 1993, Mika Vainio would have run out of steam. You would think that numerous copy cats would push his sound design into obscure corner of just another knob tweaking artist. You would think. But Vainio treads on. Currently residing in Berlin, Vainio is a prominent member of the acclaimed Pan Sonic duo (with Ilpo Väisänen). And besides his more established minimalist alias, Ø (pronounced "ohm"), he has also released under Kentolevi, Tekonivel, and Philus monikers - check out the Kolmio EP on Sähkö for the latter. Speaking of the label. Helsinki based Sähkö (which stands for "electricity" in Finnish) has built up a respectable catalog of abstract, minimal, and experimental releases since its launch in 1993 [same year that Detroit's Basic Channel was launched]. These are mostly featuring the output of various projects by Vainio and Väisänen, with an occasional release by Jimi Tenor, and a 12" by Mike Ink (Wolfgang Voigt). It also manages a handful of sub-labels which include Jazzpuu, Keys Of Life, and Puu (means "wood"). But back to Oleva ("The Existing") which features the familiar signature of Vainio's style of digital wire hum, low rumbling saw-tooth distortions, dark industrial stabs, and pounding minimal beats. Although the album features a few purely ambient tracks, as well as a couple of abstract drony explorations, the proliferation of tight rhythmic components make this release a more headphone oriented experience [as opposed to an archive of an experimental audio installations]. Oleva is is an ongoing exploration into noise and silence alike. Yet another excellent addition for the avid minimalist collector. It's delightful to see that Sähkö keeps on printing just the quality stuff. Make sure you are well familiar with Ø's classic Metri (Sähkö, 1994). Recommended if you love Gas, Autechre, anything from Basic Channel, and of course Pan Sonic.
http://www.myspace.com/electronicsquelches | http://www.phinnweb.org/vainio
http://www.sahkorecordings.com | http://www.phinnweb.org/sahko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Bissonnette - In Between Words (Kranky)
Here's another winner for Kranky, a Chicago based label that has been releasing outstanding material from Pan•American, Deerhunter, Stars Of The Lid, Loscil, Atlas Sound, Benoît Pioulard, and Valet, just to name a few. In Between Words is a sophomore release for Canadian based Christopher Bissonnette. And what a sonic treat it is! The warm layers of sound blanket the microscopic hair cells within my cochlea and gently sway them with precision controlled sound pressure. Half way through the first track an itch develops deep within my auditory canal, but I simply can not scratch that deep. Tiny white-noise artifacts crackle through the thick orchestral pads, like distant lightning in the muggy summer. But the thunder never breaks. Instead it stands still, simply just there, quietly revealing its presence, forcing you to accept. Accept this, and everything else that is currently around you. In Between Words is a collection of Bissonnette's works exploring special acoustics and integration of field recordings. Through six purely ambient and minimalist tracks, Bissonnette experiments with found sound and the empty space found in between. "Inspired by the continuous din, the constant low-level hum of urban background noise, interspersed with all manner of mechanically created sounds, Bissonnette finds in this a near-melodic soundtrack to his daily life." The organic swells are based mostly on symphonic instruments as well as macro synthesized frequency rich sound waves. As such, I find this beautiful composition much plausible to the soul, then the external background sounds of our urban environment. I almost wish that some public transportation authority would publicly broadcast this music during my morning commute. Until then, there are always headphones. If you enjoyed this album, be sure to seek out Bissonnette's debut album, Periphery (Kranky, 2005). Recommended if you follow works by Philip Jeck, Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek and Stephan Mathieu.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Christopher Bissonnette
http://www.myspace.com/christopherbissonnette | http://www.christopherbissonnette.ca
http://www.myspace.com/krankyltd | http://www.kranky.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sight Below - Glider (Ghostly)
Following up the free digital teaser, No Place For Us EP (Ghostly, 2008), The Sight Below graces our ears with a full length, Glider. The album picks up right where the EP left off - majestic flowing ambient pads spreading over endless soundscapes complimented with an ongoing four/four beat. This is ambient techno at its finest. The lush acoustic guitars are drenched in layers of reverb and luscious background chords. All the instrumentation on the album [sans the 808 percussion] was done with a guitar, ebow, viola box, loop pedals, reverb units and a delay box. The lack of transition in the rhythm first may seem to sound almost amateurish (as if a simple kick was stretched out throughout the entire track), until you realize how important this explicitly desired minimalism is for creating a hypnotic atmosphere, resembling a pumping heart beat somewhere deep within your throat. The title of the album triggers a distant memory: I jump off a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, silently hand glide through thick humid air, and land on the beach. The music evokes all the experienced feelings. The calmness of the ocean. The simplicity of falling. The excitement of danger. The Glider is the perfect soundtrack for this flashback. It's a pleasure to see this album on Ghostly International which is currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a tour of The Sight Below, Lusine, Grouper, and others along the way (see the label's myspace for tour dates). This Seattle based artist prefers to keep out of the spotlight and stay anonymous (hopefully for the time being). And as long as The Sight Below keeps on making that great music, we don't care. You will absolutely fall in love with this album if you follow Yagya, Echospace, Gas, and Christopher Willits. And don't forget to pickup the free EP!
Read Two and a Half Questions with The Sight Below
http://www.myspace.com/thesightbelow | http://www.ghostly.com/artists/the-sight-below
http://www.myspace.com/ghostlyinternational | http://www.ghostlyinternational.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardopusher - Mutant Dubstep Vol. 2 (Spectraliquid)
With half a dozen of twelve-inchers under his belt, and a full-length breakcore album Hippie Killers Don't Mind Jah Conversations (Peace Off, 2006), Luis Garbàn, aka Cardopusher, lands a tasteful EP on Spectraliquid, continuing the Athens based label's Mutant Dubstep series with Volume 2. Garbàn's previous output ranged from above mentioned breakcore, to gabber and ragga. Now he's trying his hand at dubstep, and very successfully, may I add. On this three track EP with an additional two remixes by Innasekt (Sneer and Sully) and Pacheko (Francisco Mejia Szilard), you can expect to hear clear influences of Garbàn's edgier side, grinding with those nasty sawtooth riffs through concrete onslaught of deeply resonating dark and dirty bass wobbles. The memory breaching melodies and hooks are screaming to be released onto the dance floor. With a saturation of dubstep tracks on the market, it's very difficult to pick out the standout tracks in the crowd. But you can be sure that Cardopusher's addition to the collection will be permanent. It's no wonder that Thom Yorke (yes, the one of Radiohead) included a remix of Cardopusher's track on his weekly music chart. While grabbing this colorful digipack from Spectraliquid, make sure to pick up the first volume in the series, kicked off by none other than Ebola (Ben Hudson). This is turning out to be a rather nice selection of releases from the predominantly breakcore influenced artists, and I'm looking forward to the volumes to follow. Meanwhile, be sure to pick up Cardopusher's second LP, Unity Means Power, released on brand spanking new Murder Channel Records.
http://www.myspace.com/cardopusher | http://www.cardopusher.com
http://www.myspace.com/spectraliquid | http://www.spectraliquid.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaya Project - And So It Goes (Interchill)
The latest release from Kaya Project titled, ...And So It Goes, is full of spiritual and ethnic elements, multi-lingual vocals, and world infused beats. This is a third full length album from a collaborative duo of Sebastian James Taylor and Natasha Chamberlain. Incorporating digital production design with organic instruments, Taylor and Chamberlain create a beautiful downtempo album with elements of tribal rhythms and dusty dub grooves. This album is full of contributions from many artists, like Deepak Pandit on Indian violin, Susi Evans on clarinet, and excellent vocals by Irina Mikhailova. Some of the above artists have previously worked with Taylor under his other moniker, Hibernation, with the very latest release, Some Things Never Change (Aleph Zero, 2008). Taylor has always been a pretty busy guy. On the side, he manages to put out 12" breakbeat EPs on Sinister Recordings under his Digitalis alias. Meanwhile, some may recall his early psytrance work under Shakta moniker, with the last album being Feed The Flame (Dragonfly, 2004). In this latest work, Taylor and Chamberlain join forces once more, to display their wide artistic range through music that is at once relaxing, groovy, and earthbound. One can picture carefree belly-dancers performing around the fire, circled by musicians connected to their instruments with heart and soul. It is at once a feeling of happiness and unity with the one. Recommended for the likes of Asura, Tripswitch, Solar Fields and Entheogenic.
http://www.myspace.com/sebastiantaylor | http://www.interchill.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aidan Baker And Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8)
Toronto based Aidan Baker and Montreal based Tim Hecker pair up to deliver an abstract and experimental ambient piece on a Canadian Alien8 Recordings. Hecker is not a stranger to a noise-prominent label, having previously released Mirages (Alien8, 2004), and a re-issue of Radio Amor (Mille Plateaux, 2003). In addition, his ambient recordings have already graced quality labels like Force Inc, Staalplaat, Fat Cat and Kranky. This is, however, his very first collaboration. Baker, on the other hand, is known for his work with Leah Buckareff, together cooking up ambient drone metal under the Nadja moniker. Baker's discography is immense, and mostly consists of live improvised long pieces. His ability to churn out guitar heavy drone soundscapes can be overwhelming, but together, with Hecker's luscious synth work, they pull out a whole different beast. The overdriven guitars combined with hiss, crackle and static, vibrate feverishly across the frequency spectrum, occasionally revealing a hidden pattern, a loose structure, and a graceful melody. The paced slow-core riffs, rolling at a speed of a sleeping giant, are fed back into themselves and split through a harmonic meat grinder. All this is again mashed up, tweaked out, and faded in through a torrent of bit-crushed digitally violated audio waves that give your speakers (and ears) a massive workout. Fantasma Parastasie is a relaxing fatigue - it cradles you gently by screaming its head off. Thus, together, Backer and Hecker, define an oxymoron of ambient noise or shoegazer metal. This should be a special treat for those with a taste for Belong, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Jasper TX, and Lawrence English. Where as Baker has a bucket of upcoming albums, too many to fit in a paragraph (see my Two and a Half Questions with Aidan Baker for a full list), Hecker is scheduled to release his seventh studio album, An Imaginary Country, in March 2009 on Kranky.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Aidan Baker
http://www.myspace.com/aidanbakermusic | http://www.aidanbaker.org
http://www.myspace.com/rainbowbloodx | http://www.alien8recordings.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia (4AD)
A few years ago, when I was regularly creating mixes for a podcast, an idea came across to compile music for my funeral. One thing I am sure about - I will die. And when I pass on, music will be filling in the void that was once my presence. How touching. Why shouldn't I be the one to select the pieces that would make others weep? Yes, I'll admit, I can be self centered like that. For my opening track, I turned to Jóhann Jóhannsson, and his Odi Et Amo from Englabörn (4AD, 2007). Now, with the release of Fordlandia, I may need to compile a second volume. On second thought, just play the whole album! But don't get me wrong. I don't want to come across saying that Jóhannsson's compositions are full of funeral sound [perhaps that should be a genre in itself?]. Yet, this Icelandic-born modern classical musician composes some of the most beautiful and soul drenching works that I have ever heard. The saturation of emotion approaches even my limits, and my eyes swell up with tears, as the concrete humanity gets cleansed in the rain, out in the windows of my crawling train. This is Jóhannsson's sixth full length album. Besides these contemporary classical conceptual pieces, Jóhannsson produced about a dozen of soundtracks for [mostly] Icelandic films, shorts and documentaries. There are also his theatrical works, arrangements for many artists, and music for installations. It would be an understatement to say that Jóhann Jóhannsson is a prominent figure in Icelandic contemporary artistic community. After all, he's one of the co-founders (along with Kira Kira and Hilmar Jensson) behind Kitchen Motors, "a think tank, a record label, and an art collective specializing in instigating collaborations and putting on concerts, exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration, the search for new art forms and the breaking down of barriers between forms, genres and disciplines." Thematically, Fordlandia continues the exploration of technology where Jóhannsson's last conceptual album, IBM 1401, a User's Manual (4AD, 2006) left off. Jóhannsson elaborates: "one of the two main threads running through [Fordlandia] is this idea of failed utopia, as represented by the [its] title - the story of the rubber plantation Henry Ford established in the Amazon in the 1920's, and his dreams of creating an idealized American town in the middle of the jungle complete with white picket fences, hamburgers and alcohol prohibition." For a detailed insight into creation of the album, including a commentary on each individual track (!!!), you absolutely must visit Jóhannsson's web site. Fordlandia thus becomes a second installment in a series of works documenting human hunger for ideals, technological progress, doomed failures, and the beauty of nature reclaiming itself. Such it is still, music for the born and the departed. Highly recommended! Undoubtedly one of the best albums of 2008.
http://www.myspace.com/johannjohannsson | http://www.johannjohannsson.com
http://www.myspace.com/4admusic | http://www.4ad.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plastikman - Closer (M_nus / NovaMute)
This flashback is supposed to be another installmanet of my Random Vinyl of the Week series. But I'm already cheating... A little bit... I did indeed pull out this triple twelve-incher from my vast record library (the correct term is discothèque, right?). But it is still shrink wrapped! You can't expect me to break the seal on this collector's item, can you? And, of course, I have a CD version of this 2003 album right here. Plus the disk release contains four extra tracks! So back it goes, whence it came from, to age and marinate some more. Meanwhile, Richie Hawtin is already thumping, laying out some mean bass over reverberated strings. I turn up the volume. I always turn up the volume for Plastikman. Hawtin's control over dynamic range of cranium vibrating bass, and tiny little white noises in the background always creates a hypnotic experience. The pitched down, evil, and creepy Hawtin's voice is reciting some dark lyrics: "I don't know what's left to gain / All the guilt and now the blame / I don't want to stop this game / I'm starting to enjoy the pain." The rolling lower frequencies are penetrating every nook of my studio. The light bulbs are shaking in their sockets. Something just fell in the deep cavern of my closet. Closer is an intense experience, with little release, like an involuntary muscle spasm induced by an alternating current. The themes of paranoia, schizophrenia, and claustrophobia saturate the music. Is this what we get when we get closer to Hawtin? The album tends to continue the discomforting ground work laid out in Plastikman's previous minimal release, Consumed (M_nus, 1998). Moving further away from staple sound of 909 repetitive techno beats, 303 acid sweeps, never ending delays and mind warping arpeggios, Ontario based Hawtin continues his exploration into the deep, the dark and the minimal. A lot of people have dismissed Plastikman as just another speck in the Detroit techno scene of the early 90s, being in the right place at the right time. And at times I wonder if his sound is only exciting because I've been listening to his earlier albums, Sheet One (1993), Musik (1994), and Recycled Plastik (1994) nonstop back in the 90s. But as I mature, revisit, and analyze the sound [which continues to be imitated by many up and comers], I think Richie is here to stay. Even if we haven't heard from him in over five years! Hawtin's owned Canadian labels, Plus 8 and M_nus continue to thrive and output some solid material. For a quick taste of 2008 releases check out Heartthrob's Dear Painter, Paint Me and Gaiser's Blank Fade.
http://www.myspace.com/plastikman | http://www.plastikman.com
http://www.myspace.com/min2max | http://www.m-nus.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel)
I was sitting in the waiting room. Waiting. The only external factors affecting my senses were the parallel lines of the desks and the chairs, the subdued colors of the withered walls, and the music of Stephan Mathieu in my headphones. I looked over to the clock, and the hand stood still. I turned my head sideways, squinted, and waited. Finally the hand moved. One second has passed. Then the parallel lines began to move, the chairs rippled against the desks, and the colors of the walls bled onto the carpet. My presence smiled, exited the waiting room, and slammed shut the door. I snapped out of my trip, as the clock has jumped ahead one meager second. The music on Radioland has a tendency to spread through reality its invisible tentacles of sound and invade every frequency with its incredibly thick palette, turning inaudible noise into sound, into music, into white noise again. Radioland is Mathieu's fifth full length release. And here's the kicker - it has been 'exclusively based on real-time processed shortwave radio signals', down-casting the higher frequency wavelengths to an audible spectrum of the human ear. Radioland is a limited release on a Milan (Italy) based Die Schachtel label. It is shipped on a transparent disk, Plexiglas body, with a clear acetate multi-fold cover, and appears to be already sold out on Boomkat. German born Stephan Mathieu, has been working with digital and analog processing techniques for more than a decade. His work is well known with an extensive discography concentrating on experimentation with sound, audio installations, and unique live performances. Mathieu's previous full length studio release was The Sad Mac (Vectors, 2004), followed by a collaboration with Janek Schaefer on Hidden Name (Crónica, 2006), and a single half-hour long recording of Radioland which was released by TouchRadio mp3 podcast series (Touch, 2006). The album is a highly recommended headphone experience, available as a digital FLAC download, if you can not get your hands on a limited hard copy. One thing for sure - this isn't drone music. It's macroscopic sounds fusing together into a grandiose orchestra. Another favorite of 2008.
http://www.myspace.com/stephanmathieu | http://www.bitsteam.de
http://www.die-schachtel.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (Warp / Music70)
In 2002, the Scottish electronic music duo, Boards of Canada released their second commercial full length album on Warp Records, titled Geogaddi. I say, "commercial", because prior to being signed to Warp, brothers [yes, they _are_ brothers] Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin Sandison have released several obscure EPs and albums on their own, Music70 imprint. These were mostly self-made cassette tapes, recorded for their friends and family, and are very rare and pretty much unavailable, with the exception of a few, which were later re-released. In 1995, Twoism attracted the attention of Sean Booth (Autechre) through a demo released on [that famous] IDM mailing list, and soon thereafter Hi Scores EP was released on Skam Records. In 1998, Warp picked the duo up with Music Has The Right To Children, and the rest, as we say, is history. On Geogaddi, BoC continues to play around with warped effects of stretched magnetic tape, light sprinkled beats, ghostly melodies and echoes of distant voices. The mood of Geogaddi is dark, melancholic, and at times nostalgic for the childhood, perhaps as a continuation of BoC's previous themes on Music Has the Right to Children. The sound of this electronic recording is very organic and warm, no doubt benefiting from BoC's use of analog equipment, acoustic instruments, and samples sourced from nature documentary films produced by the Canadian government agency, NFB - National Film Board of Canada. Sandison was quoted to say that Gogaddi is "a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again." The 22 tracks on the album are a result of 400 different song fragments and 64 complete other songs, which were all trimmed, re-sampled and selected to be featured on a beautiful triple 12". The last record's side F (considered to be the 23rd track of pure silence), contains an etching in the vinyl of an image of a man, woman and two children. The artwork on the album consists of kaleidoscopic images of photographs of children created by the brothers themselves. We last heard from Board of Canada through their 6 track Trans Canada Highway EP, released on Warp in 2006. Today, the brothers continue to stay out of the spotlight, working away on more tunes featuring their original staple sound. Or at least we can hope that they are ;)
http://www.myspace.com/abeautifulplace | http://www.boardsofcanada.com
http://www.music70.com | http://www.bleep.com
http://www.myspace.com/warprecords | http://www.warprecords.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
Here comes Fennesz, with his highly anticipated fourth studio album on Touch. Christian Fennesz is a prolific Vienna based composer who has been crafting electronic multi-layered laptop compositions with an aid of his guitar since the late 90s. Or is it the other way around? His guitar driven pieces with a heavy dose of DSP? Either way, Fennesz has developed that instantly recognizable and many times imitated sound. His vast discography extends through numerous EPs, remixes, soundtracks and collaborations, most notable of which is his work with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Cendre (Touch, 2007); as well as Cloud (Erstwhile, 2005) on which he worked with Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura and Oren Ambarchi. With a collection of works approaching the count of 30, Fennesz's last solo studio release was four years ago, Venice (Touch, 2004). So it should be no surprise that the fans jumped in anticipation to grab this 2008 release, Black Sea. And I hope the fans are not disappointed. Fennesz picks up where he left off with Venice, building on his trademark of processed and filtered guitar sound. Faint melodies cut with their pale beauty through a sharp fuzzy white haze. Sure, it may sound like over-driven, bit-crushing, pixel-offsetting, standing noise you have heard before on another album. But let me remind you once more, that Fennesz has been pioneering this sound well before the advancement of software and saturation of costly plugins on the market. On a nine-and-a-half minute track called Glide, for example, Fennesz is joined by Rosy Parlane [check out his albums Iris (Touch, 2004) and Jessamine (Touch, 2006)], to build up an incredible swell of sound, that buzzes to an orchestral crescendo, until it breaks into a tidal wave of near silence, which washes off the coast of a Black Sea. Experience Fennesz if artists like Alva Noto, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, and Oren Ambarchi are on your radar.
Also... Check out my previous review of Cendre and Two and a Half Questions with Christian Fennesz
http://www.myspace.com/fennesz | http://www.fennesz.com
http://www.touchshop.org | http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Von Magnet - Ni Prédateur Ni Proie (Ant-Zen / Jarring Effects)
Ni Prédateur Ni Proie is a complete theatrical performance packaged into twelve sketches on a disk. Strings tune up. A gong rings. A voice pleads with a shadow. Tension builds up. Industrial percussion kicks in. What follows is a combination of experimental neo-classical and avant-garde rhythmic technoid, curated with ethnic organic beats and acoustic orchestral instrumentation. Along the dark curtain of apocalyptic soundscapes, people confide in their woes. What is this place? With scalpel sharp precise execution, the French collective Von Magnet, tells a story of a human conflict. Regardless of the geographical location, we, the people, tend to find reasons to create interpersonal struggles that reflect externally through rage, tears, and war. The field recordings and the produced performances in different tongues speak for the voice of the human condition and the reality of today's brutal world. The cover art depicts two hands, of different skin color, smothered in oil, attempting to hold on to each other, but slipping away. The music conveys a similar theme. Von Magnet has been around since the late 80s, saturating the airwaves with post-industrial sound through more than a dozen albums. Their live shows are usually accompanied by performance art which transform the stage into a fascinating experimental musical. A quote from their bio: "Based successively in Barcelona, Rennes, Amsterdam, Lille, Berlin & Paris, for each project gathering different creative teams and mixed peculiar tribes of performers, visual artists, dancers, musicians, designers or sculptors, Von Magnet is indeed one of the cybergypsy pioneers of euroculture." It would be an absolute treat to see them live. Meanwhile, this excellent addition to an already powerful catalog of Ant-Zen will have to satisfy your cravings. The album is released in parallel on a French Jarring Effects label. Refusing to be divided, refusing to be boxed in, and refusing to accept the two extreme choices, with their music Von Magnet proclaims that it will be... neither predator, nor prey.
http://www.myspace.com/vonmagnet | http://www.vonmag.net
http://www.myspace.com/antzen | http://www.ant-zen.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Chauveau - The Black Book Of Capitalism (Type)
This dusty selection of modern classical compositions originally released by Sylvain Chauveau in 2000 [and re-issued in 2002] is once again available on Type Records! This was Chauveau's debut album, originally titled in French as Le Livre Noir Du Capitalisme, and released on a Dijon (France) based experimental and ambient label, Noise Museum [which is now defunct]. This album has been long out of print, and I'll admit - since it never reached US, it totally fell off my radar. But thanks to Type, this remastered version [although still limited to only 400 copies] can be heard again! Throughout the years, Chauveau has experimented with sound applying self-imposed principles that amount to just these three: "to stay as close as possible to the abstract beauty of 'silence'; to make sure that each sound committed is absolutely necessary; to find [my] own roots within [my] cultural and personal history." Chauveau's collection of albums range from solo piano pieces to minimal experimental drones. For an interesting minimal exploration of fragmented sound check out the last five-track album, simply titled S. [Type, 2007]. Chauveau also has composed soundtracks for films by Sébastien Betbeder. The latest release, Nuage [Type, 2007] compiles music for two films, Les Mains D'Andréa, and of course, Nuage. But back to The Black Book Of Capitalism, which, incidentally, shares its title with a French book published in 1998, which is a collection of essays covering everything from African slave trade to the era of financial globalization. This original album is very much different from Chauveau's current experimental pieces. It is quiet the opposite, and one might say "full of sound". And immediately, one track after another, start to receive five star rating on my player, falling along the roster of my favorite works by Peter Broderick, Goldmund and Max Richter. Through the crackling grooves of a record the images of early European films flood the airwaves with ghost-like beautiful melodies that have only matured since their original birth. Music like his doesn't age. It is classic. Highly recommended!
http://www.myspace.com/atkinsonchauveau | http://www.sylvainchauveau.net
http://www.myspace.com/typerecordings | http://www.typerecords.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biosphere - Shenzhou (Touch)
Prior to doing a proper writeup on Geir Jenssen, I listened to all of his grandiose works. Twice. OK, maybe not all. Jenssen's discography does not only span albums under his most famous moniker, Biosphere. There is his debut album, The North Pole By Submarine (SSR, 1989) as Bleep; two volumes of The Fires of Ork in collaboration with Pete Namlook (Fax, 1993 & 2000); two releases with The Higher Intelligence Agency, Polar Sequences (Beyond, 1996) and Birmingham Frequencies (Headphone 2000); an album, Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon, 1998), with Deathprod; and finally a collection of field recordings from Tibet, Cho Oyu (Ash International, 2006), under his real name. And that's just scratching the surface. However, after spending an entire week (!) revisiting Jenssen's contributions towards the evolution of ambient sound as we know it today, I settled picking Shenzhou for this writeup. That one, my friends, is a masterpiece. Shenzhou explores more than just dark atmospheres and loop based hypnotic soundscapes. Here Jenssen does something many musicians have tried to accomplish - use classical music as the main ingredient, but without being too overbearing, obvious, or just for its mere sake. In Shenzhou, Jenssen constructs haunting environmental passages based on orchestral works by Claude Debussy, La Mer (The Sea) and Jeux. During the beatless layers of lush pads, deep sonic bass, and dusty vinyl samples of strings and woodwinds, Jenssen builds on meditative templates inflicting a trance-like state for the mind relying on its pattern recognition capabilities. The subliminal waves of euphoria wash over the timeless expansion of sound throughout the universe of the void. The subtle contributions of Jenssen's own sound design only enhance Debussy's already melancholic impressionist approach. Purely genius. This work solidifies Biosphere's impact on ambient movement. Previously, Jennsen has been known to pioneer his own personal style - arctic ambient. The latter is thematically named for Jenssen's geographical and minimalist attributes. Born in Tromsø, a city in the Arctic Circle of Norway, Jenssen evoked the sense of isolation and arctic calm, more prominent in his earlier albums like Substrata (All Saints Records, 1997) and above mentioned Polar Sequences. But in Shenzhou the ice melts away into the ocean of sound. And with it we drift... and we drift... For a sensory deprived in-vacuum experience, pick up Biosphere's Autour de la Lune (Touch, 2004) [headphones with deep bass response recommended], as well as his latest, Dropsonde (Touch 2006). In 2007, Norwegian Beatservice Records, re-released the first three of Biosphere's albums - Microgravity, Patashnik, and Insomnia. Highly recommended for the likes of Gas, PanAmerican, Steve Roach, Robert Henke, Deaf Center and Murcof.
http://www.myspace.com/biosphereofficial | http://www.biosphere.no
http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
last.fm artist and label cloud mentioned in the above post: 2562, Pinch, Skream, Cyrus, Burial, A Made Up Sound, Dogdaze, Venetian Snares, Squarepusher, BLÆRG, BLAERG, Xanopticon, The Flashbulb, Enduser, Igorrr, Wisp, Mika Vainio, Ø, Ilpo Väisänen, Pan Sonic, Kentolevi, tekonivel, Philus, Jimi Tenor, Mike Ink, Gas, Autechre, Pan•American, Deerhunter, Stars of the Lid, Loscil, Atlas Sound, Benoît Pioulard, Valet, Christopher Bissonnette, Philip Jeck, Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek, Stephan Mathieu, The Sight Below, Lusine, Grouper, Yagya, Echospace, Christopher Willits, Cardopusher, innasekt, Pacheko, Ebola, Kaya Project, Deepak Pandit, Natasha Chamberlain, Sebastian James Taylor, Shakta, Asura, Tripswitch, Solar Fields, Entheogenic, Bluetech, Aidan Baker, Nadja, Leah Buckareff, Belong, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Jasper TX, Lawrence English, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Richie Hawtin, Plastikman, Heartthrob, Gaiser, Janek Schaefer, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Fennesz, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura, Oren Ambarchi, Alva Noto, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, Von Magnet, Sylvain Chauveau, Peter Broderick, Goldmund, Max Richter, Geir Jenssen, Biosphere, Panamerican, Steve Roach, Robert Henke, Deaf Center, Murcof
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2562 - Aerial (Tectonic)
Twenty-five sixty-two is not just a postcode in The Netherlands' Den Hague - it is also an alias of its resident who is a prolific producer of dubstep, techno, and broken beat atmospherics. Dave Huismans's first full length release on Tectonic under 2562 moniker is titled Aerial. Tectonic is the same label that previously brought you the 12-inchers from Pinch, Skream, and Cyrus. On Aerial, Huismans layers dubbed out minor chords on top of the blowing wind of white noise and deep sub-bass enriched syncopated beats. The rhythm bounces between a Detroit-meets-Berlin techno sound and reverb heavy dubstep, creating tunes geared more towards home listening then as the fillers on the dance floor [not that hearing these tracks booming on a loud sound system would be unappealing].With his own personal style, Aerial is more of an album then a compilation of singles. The tracks work well together, wrapped around the concept the same way Burial delivered the unmistakable sound of Untrue. One thing for sure - this isn't the sound of London. That is to say, that it seems to have more in common with minimal dub techno then the filthy bass ridden dubstep hooks. Both styles are excellent - just depends what you're in the mood for at the moment. And this very instant, I need to be chilled out and at the same time warmed up, keeping the evil grin away. At the end everything is just a matter of taste. And there's only one way for you to find out.For more music from Huismans, check out his two side projects: a few EPs on Subsolo Records as A Made Up Sound; and earlier released jazzy broken beat EPs on the Dutch Flyin' High Records under Dogdaze alias. Recommended if you want to hear dubstep with some Modern Love and Basic Channel feel.
http://www.myspace.com/2562dub
http://www.myspace.com/tectonicrecordings
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLÆRG - Dysphoric Sonorities (Bottle Imp Productions)
Since the good ol' days of Squarepusher's jazzy idm breaks, laced with jungle flavored drill'n'bass, I've been nostalgic for that fading away sound. Even Venetian Snares modern-classical-meets-breakcore masterpiece, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (Planet Mu, 2005), is now almost four years old. Has the genre put on an angrier mask and turned to gabber-heavy random-triggered mayhem? Where are those melodically driven themes complimented by intelligent macro programmed precision percussion? Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Feel free to turn me in the right direction.Imagine my surprise when I landed on BLÆRG. This Ohio (US) based producer is everything mentioned above and more! [Yes, exclamation point is really necessary at this point]. Scott Wehman is not exactly a newcomer to the scene. Initially playing bass guitar for a few local metal bands, Wehman turned to producing electronica. With a few digital releases and a full length, Sesquipedalia (FromTheGut, 2007), Wehman joined Detroit stationed Bottle Imp Productions' roster, and opened up with a his sophomore album, Dysphoric Sonorities. Following this release he put out a very lovely limited EP [only 50 copies!], Auspices & Vagaries (Bottle Imp, 2008) and a collection of earlier tracks [presumably traded over the slsk network], Soulseek Days (Bottle Imp, 2008).On Dysphoric Sonorities, Wehman cleverly masters all of the beloved elements of intelligent breakcore - from jazzy keys, to bass slaps, to piano chords, to acoustic percussion drilled and glitched out to perfection. And there is enough evil in there to satisfy the angry rats scratching at the surface of the inside of my skull. Oh, and did I mentioned that production is top notch? Highly recommended along with the EP (if you are one of the lucky ones to get your dirty paws on it), if you like above mentioned names, plus Xanopticon, The Flashbulb, Enduser, Igorrr and Wisp.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Blaerg
http://www.myspace.com/blaerg | http://www.fromthegut.org/blaerg
http://www.myspace.com/bottleimpproductions | http://www.bottle-imp.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ø - Oleva (Sähkö)
OlevaYou would think that by being one of the prominent sound engineers and pioneers in experimental music since 1993, Mika Vainio would have run out of steam. You would think that numerous copy cats would push his sound design into obscure corner of just another knob tweaking artist. You would think. But Vainio treads on. Currently residing in Berlin, Vainio is a prominent member of the acclaimed Pan Sonic duo (with Ilpo Väisänen). And besides his more established minimalist alias, Ø (pronounced "ohm"), he has also released under Kentolevi, Tekonivel, and Philus monikers - check out the Kolmio EP on Sähkö for the latter. Speaking of the label. Helsinki based Sähkö (which stands for "electricity" in Finnish) has built up a respectable catalog of abstract, minimal, and experimental releases since its launch in 1993 [same year that Detroit's Basic Channel was launched]. These are mostly featuring the output of various projects by Vainio and Väisänen, with an occasional release by Jimi Tenor, and a 12" by Mike Ink (Wolfgang Voigt). It also manages a handful of sub-labels which include Jazzpuu, Keys Of Life, and Puu (means "wood"). But back to Oleva ("The Existing") which features the familiar signature of Vainio's style of digital wire hum, low rumbling saw-tooth distortions, dark industrial stabs, and pounding minimal beats. Although the album features a few purely ambient tracks, as well as a couple of abstract drony explorations, the proliferation of tight rhythmic components make this release a more headphone oriented experience [as opposed to an archive of an experimental audio installations]. Oleva is is an ongoing exploration into noise and silence alike. Yet another excellent addition for the avid minimalist collector. It's delightful to see that Sähkö keeps on printing just the quality stuff. Make sure you are well familiar with Ø's classic Metri (Sähkö, 1994). Recommended if you love Gas, Autechre, anything from Basic Channel, and of course Pan Sonic.
http://www.myspace.com/electronicsquelches | http://www.phinnweb.org/vainio
http://www.sahkorecordings.com | http://www.phinnweb.org/sahko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Bissonnette - In Between Words (Kranky)
Here's another winner for Kranky, a Chicago based label that has been releasing outstanding material from Pan•American, Deerhunter, Stars Of The Lid, Loscil, Atlas Sound, Benoît Pioulard, and Valet, just to name a few. In Between Words is a sophomore release for Canadian based Christopher Bissonnette. And what a sonic treat it is! The warm layers of sound blanket the microscopic hair cells within my cochlea and gently sway them with precision controlled sound pressure. Half way through the first track an itch develops deep within my auditory canal, but I simply can not scratch that deep. Tiny white-noise artifacts crackle through the thick orchestral pads, like distant lightning in the muggy summer. But the thunder never breaks. Instead it stands still, simply just there, quietly revealing its presence, forcing you to accept. Accept this, and everything else that is currently around you. In Between Words is a collection of Bissonnette's works exploring special acoustics and integration of field recordings. Through six purely ambient and minimalist tracks, Bissonnette experiments with found sound and the empty space found in between. "Inspired by the continuous din, the constant low-level hum of urban background noise, interspersed with all manner of mechanically created sounds, Bissonnette finds in this a near-melodic soundtrack to his daily life." The organic swells are based mostly on symphonic instruments as well as macro synthesized frequency rich sound waves. As such, I find this beautiful composition much plausible to the soul, then the external background sounds of our urban environment. I almost wish that some public transportation authority would publicly broadcast this music during my morning commute. Until then, there are always headphones. If you enjoyed this album, be sure to seek out Bissonnette's debut album, Periphery (Kranky, 2005). Recommended if you follow works by Philip Jeck, Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek and Stephan Mathieu.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Christopher Bissonnette
http://www.myspace.com/christopherbissonnette | http://www.christopherbissonnette.ca
http://www.myspace.com/krankyltd | http://www.kranky.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sight Below - Glider (Ghostly)
Following up the free digital teaser, No Place For Us EP (Ghostly, 2008), The Sight Below graces our ears with a full length, Glider. The album picks up right where the EP left off - majestic flowing ambient pads spreading over endless soundscapes complimented with an ongoing four/four beat. This is ambient techno at its finest. The lush acoustic guitars are drenched in layers of reverb and luscious background chords. All the instrumentation on the album [sans the 808 percussion] was done with a guitar, ebow, viola box, loop pedals, reverb units and a delay box. The lack of transition in the rhythm first may seem to sound almost amateurish (as if a simple kick was stretched out throughout the entire track), until you realize how important this explicitly desired minimalism is for creating a hypnotic atmosphere, resembling a pumping heart beat somewhere deep within your throat. The title of the album triggers a distant memory: I jump off a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, silently hand glide through thick humid air, and land on the beach. The music evokes all the experienced feelings. The calmness of the ocean. The simplicity of falling. The excitement of danger. The Glider is the perfect soundtrack for this flashback. It's a pleasure to see this album on Ghostly International which is currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a tour of The Sight Below, Lusine, Grouper, and others along the way (see the label's myspace for tour dates). This Seattle based artist prefers to keep out of the spotlight and stay anonymous (hopefully for the time being). And as long as The Sight Below keeps on making that great music, we don't care. You will absolutely fall in love with this album if you follow Yagya, Echospace, Gas, and Christopher Willits. And don't forget to pickup the free EP!
Read Two and a Half Questions with The Sight Below
http://www.myspace.com/thesightbelow | http://www.ghostly.com/artists/the-sight-below
http://www.myspace.com/ghostlyinternational | http://www.ghostlyinternational.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardopusher - Mutant Dubstep Vol. 2 (Spectraliquid)
With half a dozen of twelve-inchers under his belt, and a full-length breakcore album Hippie Killers Don't Mind Jah Conversations (Peace Off, 2006), Luis Garbàn, aka Cardopusher, lands a tasteful EP on Spectraliquid, continuing the Athens based label's Mutant Dubstep series with Volume 2. Garbàn's previous output ranged from above mentioned breakcore, to gabber and ragga. Now he's trying his hand at dubstep, and very successfully, may I add. On this three track EP with an additional two remixes by Innasekt (Sneer and Sully) and Pacheko (Francisco Mejia Szilard), you can expect to hear clear influences of Garbàn's edgier side, grinding with those nasty sawtooth riffs through concrete onslaught of deeply resonating dark and dirty bass wobbles. The memory breaching melodies and hooks are screaming to be released onto the dance floor. With a saturation of dubstep tracks on the market, it's very difficult to pick out the standout tracks in the crowd. But you can be sure that Cardopusher's addition to the collection will be permanent. It's no wonder that Thom Yorke (yes, the one of Radiohead) included a remix of Cardopusher's track on his weekly music chart. While grabbing this colorful digipack from Spectraliquid, make sure to pick up the first volume in the series, kicked off by none other than Ebola (Ben Hudson). This is turning out to be a rather nice selection of releases from the predominantly breakcore influenced artists, and I'm looking forward to the volumes to follow. Meanwhile, be sure to pick up Cardopusher's second LP, Unity Means Power, released on brand spanking new Murder Channel Records.
http://www.myspace.com/cardopusher | http://www.cardopusher.com
http://www.myspace.com/spectraliquid | http://www.spectraliquid.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaya Project - And So It Goes (Interchill)
The latest release from Kaya Project titled, ...And So It Goes, is full of spiritual and ethnic elements, multi-lingual vocals, and world infused beats. This is a third full length album from a collaborative duo of Sebastian James Taylor and Natasha Chamberlain. Incorporating digital production design with organic instruments, Taylor and Chamberlain create a beautiful downtempo album with elements of tribal rhythms and dusty dub grooves. This album is full of contributions from many artists, like Deepak Pandit on Indian violin, Susi Evans on clarinet, and excellent vocals by Irina Mikhailova. Some of the above artists have previously worked with Taylor under his other moniker, Hibernation, with the very latest release, Some Things Never Change (Aleph Zero, 2008). Taylor has always been a pretty busy guy. On the side, he manages to put out 12" breakbeat EPs on Sinister Recordings under his Digitalis alias. Meanwhile, some may recall his early psytrance work under Shakta moniker, with the last album being Feed The Flame (Dragonfly, 2004). In this latest work, Taylor and Chamberlain join forces once more, to display their wide artistic range through music that is at once relaxing, groovy, and earthbound. One can picture carefree belly-dancers performing around the fire, circled by musicians connected to their instruments with heart and soul. It is at once a feeling of happiness and unity with the one. Recommended for the likes of Asura, Tripswitch, Solar Fields and Entheogenic.
http://www.myspace.com/sebastiantaylor | http://www.interchill.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aidan Baker And Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8)
Toronto based Aidan Baker and Montreal based Tim Hecker pair up to deliver an abstract and experimental ambient piece on a Canadian Alien8 Recordings. Hecker is not a stranger to a noise-prominent label, having previously released Mirages (Alien8, 2004), and a re-issue of Radio Amor (Mille Plateaux, 2003). In addition, his ambient recordings have already graced quality labels like Force Inc, Staalplaat, Fat Cat and Kranky. This is, however, his very first collaboration. Baker, on the other hand, is known for his work with Leah Buckareff, together cooking up ambient drone metal under the Nadja moniker. Baker's discography is immense, and mostly consists of live improvised long pieces. His ability to churn out guitar heavy drone soundscapes can be overwhelming, but together, with Hecker's luscious synth work, they pull out a whole different beast. The overdriven guitars combined with hiss, crackle and static, vibrate feverishly across the frequency spectrum, occasionally revealing a hidden pattern, a loose structure, and a graceful melody. The paced slow-core riffs, rolling at a speed of a sleeping giant, are fed back into themselves and split through a harmonic meat grinder. All this is again mashed up, tweaked out, and faded in through a torrent of bit-crushed digitally violated audio waves that give your speakers (and ears) a massive workout. Fantasma Parastasie is a relaxing fatigue - it cradles you gently by screaming its head off. Thus, together, Backer and Hecker, define an oxymoron of ambient noise or shoegazer metal. This should be a special treat for those with a taste for Belong, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Jasper TX, and Lawrence English. Where as Baker has a bucket of upcoming albums, too many to fit in a paragraph (see my Two and a Half Questions with Aidan Baker for a full list), Hecker is scheduled to release his seventh studio album, An Imaginary Country, in March 2009 on Kranky.
Read Two and a Half Questions with Aidan Baker
http://www.myspace.com/aidanbakermusic | http://www.aidanbaker.org
http://www.myspace.com/rainbowbloodx | http://www.alien8recordings.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia (4AD)
A few years ago, when I was regularly creating mixes for a podcast, an idea came across to compile music for my funeral. One thing I am sure about - I will die. And when I pass on, music will be filling in the void that was once my presence. How touching. Why shouldn't I be the one to select the pieces that would make others weep? Yes, I'll admit, I can be self centered like that. For my opening track, I turned to Jóhann Jóhannsson, and his Odi Et Amo from Englabörn (4AD, 2007). Now, with the release of Fordlandia, I may need to compile a second volume. On second thought, just play the whole album! But don't get me wrong. I don't want to come across saying that Jóhannsson's compositions are full of funeral sound [perhaps that should be a genre in itself?]. Yet, this Icelandic-born modern classical musician composes some of the most beautiful and soul drenching works that I have ever heard. The saturation of emotion approaches even my limits, and my eyes swell up with tears, as the concrete humanity gets cleansed in the rain, out in the windows of my crawling train. This is Jóhannsson's sixth full length album. Besides these contemporary classical conceptual pieces, Jóhannsson produced about a dozen of soundtracks for [mostly] Icelandic films, shorts and documentaries. There are also his theatrical works, arrangements for many artists, and music for installations. It would be an understatement to say that Jóhann Jóhannsson is a prominent figure in Icelandic contemporary artistic community. After all, he's one of the co-founders (along with Kira Kira and Hilmar Jensson) behind Kitchen Motors, "a think tank, a record label, and an art collective specializing in instigating collaborations and putting on concerts, exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration, the search for new art forms and the breaking down of barriers between forms, genres and disciplines." Thematically, Fordlandia continues the exploration of technology where Jóhannsson's last conceptual album, IBM 1401, a User's Manual (4AD, 2006) left off. Jóhannsson elaborates: "one of the two main threads running through [Fordlandia] is this idea of failed utopia, as represented by the [its] title - the story of the rubber plantation Henry Ford established in the Amazon in the 1920's, and his dreams of creating an idealized American town in the middle of the jungle complete with white picket fences, hamburgers and alcohol prohibition." For a detailed insight into creation of the album, including a commentary on each individual track (!!!), you absolutely must visit Jóhannsson's web site. Fordlandia thus becomes a second installment in a series of works documenting human hunger for ideals, technological progress, doomed failures, and the beauty of nature reclaiming itself. Such it is still, music for the born and the departed. Highly recommended! Undoubtedly one of the best albums of 2008.
http://www.myspace.com/johannjohannsson | http://www.johannjohannsson.com
http://www.myspace.com/4admusic | http://www.4ad.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plastikman - Closer (M_nus / NovaMute)
This flashback is supposed to be another installmanet of my Random Vinyl of the Week series. But I'm already cheating... A little bit... I did indeed pull out this triple twelve-incher from my vast record library (the correct term is discothèque, right?). But it is still shrink wrapped! You can't expect me to break the seal on this collector's item, can you? And, of course, I have a CD version of this 2003 album right here. Plus the disk release contains four extra tracks! So back it goes, whence it came from, to age and marinate some more. Meanwhile, Richie Hawtin is already thumping, laying out some mean bass over reverberated strings. I turn up the volume. I always turn up the volume for Plastikman. Hawtin's control over dynamic range of cranium vibrating bass, and tiny little white noises in the background always creates a hypnotic experience. The pitched down, evil, and creepy Hawtin's voice is reciting some dark lyrics: "I don't know what's left to gain / All the guilt and now the blame / I don't want to stop this game / I'm starting to enjoy the pain." The rolling lower frequencies are penetrating every nook of my studio. The light bulbs are shaking in their sockets. Something just fell in the deep cavern of my closet. Closer is an intense experience, with little release, like an involuntary muscle spasm induced by an alternating current. The themes of paranoia, schizophrenia, and claustrophobia saturate the music. Is this what we get when we get closer to Hawtin? The album tends to continue the discomforting ground work laid out in Plastikman's previous minimal release, Consumed (M_nus, 1998). Moving further away from staple sound of 909 repetitive techno beats, 303 acid sweeps, never ending delays and mind warping arpeggios, Ontario based Hawtin continues his exploration into the deep, the dark and the minimal. A lot of people have dismissed Plastikman as just another speck in the Detroit techno scene of the early 90s, being in the right place at the right time. And at times I wonder if his sound is only exciting because I've been listening to his earlier albums, Sheet One (1993), Musik (1994), and Recycled Plastik (1994) nonstop back in the 90s. But as I mature, revisit, and analyze the sound [which continues to be imitated by many up and comers], I think Richie is here to stay. Even if we haven't heard from him in over five years! Hawtin's owned Canadian labels, Plus 8 and M_nus continue to thrive and output some solid material. For a quick taste of 2008 releases check out Heartthrob's Dear Painter, Paint Me and Gaiser's Blank Fade.
http://www.myspace.com/plastikman | http://www.plastikman.com
http://www.myspace.com/min2max | http://www.m-nus.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel)
I was sitting in the waiting room. Waiting. The only external factors affecting my senses were the parallel lines of the desks and the chairs, the subdued colors of the withered walls, and the music of Stephan Mathieu in my headphones. I looked over to the clock, and the hand stood still. I turned my head sideways, squinted, and waited. Finally the hand moved. One second has passed. Then the parallel lines began to move, the chairs rippled against the desks, and the colors of the walls bled onto the carpet. My presence smiled, exited the waiting room, and slammed shut the door. I snapped out of my trip, as the clock has jumped ahead one meager second. The music on Radioland has a tendency to spread through reality its invisible tentacles of sound and invade every frequency with its incredibly thick palette, turning inaudible noise into sound, into music, into white noise again. Radioland is Mathieu's fifth full length release. And here's the kicker - it has been 'exclusively based on real-time processed shortwave radio signals', down-casting the higher frequency wavelengths to an audible spectrum of the human ear. Radioland is a limited release on a Milan (Italy) based Die Schachtel label. It is shipped on a transparent disk, Plexiglas body, with a clear acetate multi-fold cover, and appears to be already sold out on Boomkat. German born Stephan Mathieu, has been working with digital and analog processing techniques for more than a decade. His work is well known with an extensive discography concentrating on experimentation with sound, audio installations, and unique live performances. Mathieu's previous full length studio release was The Sad Mac (Vectors, 2004), followed by a collaboration with Janek Schaefer on Hidden Name (Crónica, 2006), and a single half-hour long recording of Radioland which was released by TouchRadio mp3 podcast series (Touch, 2006). The album is a highly recommended headphone experience, available as a digital FLAC download, if you can not get your hands on a limited hard copy. One thing for sure - this isn't drone music. It's macroscopic sounds fusing together into a grandiose orchestra. Another favorite of 2008.
http://www.myspace.com/stephanmathieu | http://www.bitsteam.de
http://www.die-schachtel.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (Warp / Music70)
In 2002, the Scottish electronic music duo, Boards of Canada released their second commercial full length album on Warp Records, titled Geogaddi. I say, "commercial", because prior to being signed to Warp, brothers [yes, they _are_ brothers] Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin Sandison have released several obscure EPs and albums on their own, Music70 imprint. These were mostly self-made cassette tapes, recorded for their friends and family, and are very rare and pretty much unavailable, with the exception of a few, which were later re-released. In 1995, Twoism attracted the attention of Sean Booth (Autechre) through a demo released on [that famous] IDM mailing list, and soon thereafter Hi Scores EP was released on Skam Records. In 1998, Warp picked the duo up with Music Has The Right To Children, and the rest, as we say, is history. On Geogaddi, BoC continues to play around with warped effects of stretched magnetic tape, light sprinkled beats, ghostly melodies and echoes of distant voices. The mood of Geogaddi is dark, melancholic, and at times nostalgic for the childhood, perhaps as a continuation of BoC's previous themes on Music Has the Right to Children. The sound of this electronic recording is very organic and warm, no doubt benefiting from BoC's use of analog equipment, acoustic instruments, and samples sourced from nature documentary films produced by the Canadian government agency, NFB - National Film Board of Canada. Sandison was quoted to say that Gogaddi is "a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again." The 22 tracks on the album are a result of 400 different song fragments and 64 complete other songs, which were all trimmed, re-sampled and selected to be featured on a beautiful triple 12". The last record's side F (considered to be the 23rd track of pure silence), contains an etching in the vinyl of an image of a man, woman and two children. The artwork on the album consists of kaleidoscopic images of photographs of children created by the brothers themselves. We last heard from Board of Canada through their 6 track Trans Canada Highway EP, released on Warp in 2006. Today, the brothers continue to stay out of the spotlight, working away on more tunes featuring their original staple sound. Or at least we can hope that they are ;)
http://www.myspace.com/abeautifulplace | http://www.boardsofcanada.com
http://www.music70.com | http://www.bleep.com
http://www.myspace.com/warprecords | http://www.warprecords.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
Here comes Fennesz, with his highly anticipated fourth studio album on Touch. Christian Fennesz is a prolific Vienna based composer who has been crafting electronic multi-layered laptop compositions with an aid of his guitar since the late 90s. Or is it the other way around? His guitar driven pieces with a heavy dose of DSP? Either way, Fennesz has developed that instantly recognizable and many times imitated sound. His vast discography extends through numerous EPs, remixes, soundtracks and collaborations, most notable of which is his work with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Cendre (Touch, 2007); as well as Cloud (Erstwhile, 2005) on which he worked with Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura and Oren Ambarchi. With a collection of works approaching the count of 30, Fennesz's last solo studio release was four years ago, Venice (Touch, 2004). So it should be no surprise that the fans jumped in anticipation to grab this 2008 release, Black Sea. And I hope the fans are not disappointed. Fennesz picks up where he left off with Venice, building on his trademark of processed and filtered guitar sound. Faint melodies cut with their pale beauty through a sharp fuzzy white haze. Sure, it may sound like over-driven, bit-crushing, pixel-offsetting, standing noise you have heard before on another album. But let me remind you once more, that Fennesz has been pioneering this sound well before the advancement of software and saturation of costly plugins on the market. On a nine-and-a-half minute track called Glide, for example, Fennesz is joined by Rosy Parlane [check out his albums Iris (Touch, 2004) and Jessamine (Touch, 2006)], to build up an incredible swell of sound, that buzzes to an orchestral crescendo, until it breaks into a tidal wave of near silence, which washes off the coast of a Black Sea. Experience Fennesz if artists like Alva Noto, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, and Oren Ambarchi are on your radar.
Also... Check out my previous review of Cendre and Two and a Half Questions with Christian Fennesz
http://www.myspace.com/fennesz | http://www.fennesz.com
http://www.touchshop.org | http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Von Magnet - Ni Prédateur Ni Proie (Ant-Zen / Jarring Effects)
Ni Prédateur Ni Proie is a complete theatrical performance packaged into twelve sketches on a disk. Strings tune up. A gong rings. A voice pleads with a shadow. Tension builds up. Industrial percussion kicks in. What follows is a combination of experimental neo-classical and avant-garde rhythmic technoid, curated with ethnic organic beats and acoustic orchestral instrumentation. Along the dark curtain of apocalyptic soundscapes, people confide in their woes. What is this place? With scalpel sharp precise execution, the French collective Von Magnet, tells a story of a human conflict. Regardless of the geographical location, we, the people, tend to find reasons to create interpersonal struggles that reflect externally through rage, tears, and war. The field recordings and the produced performances in different tongues speak for the voice of the human condition and the reality of today's brutal world. The cover art depicts two hands, of different skin color, smothered in oil, attempting to hold on to each other, but slipping away. The music conveys a similar theme. Von Magnet has been around since the late 80s, saturating the airwaves with post-industrial sound through more than a dozen albums. Their live shows are usually accompanied by performance art which transform the stage into a fascinating experimental musical. A quote from their bio: "Based successively in Barcelona, Rennes, Amsterdam, Lille, Berlin & Paris, for each project gathering different creative teams and mixed peculiar tribes of performers, visual artists, dancers, musicians, designers or sculptors, Von Magnet is indeed one of the cybergypsy pioneers of euroculture." It would be an absolute treat to see them live. Meanwhile, this excellent addition to an already powerful catalog of Ant-Zen will have to satisfy your cravings. The album is released in parallel on a French Jarring Effects label. Refusing to be divided, refusing to be boxed in, and refusing to accept the two extreme choices, with their music Von Magnet proclaims that it will be... neither predator, nor prey.
http://www.myspace.com/vonmagnet | http://www.vonmag.net
http://www.myspace.com/antzen | http://www.ant-zen.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Chauveau - The Black Book Of Capitalism (Type)
This dusty selection of modern classical compositions originally released by Sylvain Chauveau in 2000 [and re-issued in 2002] is once again available on Type Records! This was Chauveau's debut album, originally titled in French as Le Livre Noir Du Capitalisme, and released on a Dijon (France) based experimental and ambient label, Noise Museum [which is now defunct]. This album has been long out of print, and I'll admit - since it never reached US, it totally fell off my radar. But thanks to Type, this remastered version [although still limited to only 400 copies] can be heard again! Throughout the years, Chauveau has experimented with sound applying self-imposed principles that amount to just these three: "to stay as close as possible to the abstract beauty of 'silence'; to make sure that each sound committed is absolutely necessary; to find [my] own roots within [my] cultural and personal history." Chauveau's collection of albums range from solo piano pieces to minimal experimental drones. For an interesting minimal exploration of fragmented sound check out the last five-track album, simply titled S. [Type, 2007]. Chauveau also has composed soundtracks for films by Sébastien Betbeder. The latest release, Nuage [Type, 2007] compiles music for two films, Les Mains D'Andréa, and of course, Nuage. But back to The Black Book Of Capitalism, which, incidentally, shares its title with a French book published in 1998, which is a collection of essays covering everything from African slave trade to the era of financial globalization. This original album is very much different from Chauveau's current experimental pieces. It is quiet the opposite, and one might say "full of sound". And immediately, one track after another, start to receive five star rating on my player, falling along the roster of my favorite works by Peter Broderick, Goldmund and Max Richter. Through the crackling grooves of a record the images of early European films flood the airwaves with ghost-like beautiful melodies that have only matured since their original birth. Music like his doesn't age. It is classic. Highly recommended!
http://www.myspace.com/atkinsonchauveau | http://www.sylvainchauveau.net
http://www.myspace.com/typerecordings | http://www.typerecords.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biosphere - Shenzhou (Touch)
Prior to doing a proper writeup on Geir Jenssen, I listened to all of his grandiose works. Twice. OK, maybe not all. Jenssen's discography does not only span albums under his most famous moniker, Biosphere. There is his debut album, The North Pole By Submarine (SSR, 1989) as Bleep; two volumes of The Fires of Ork in collaboration with Pete Namlook (Fax, 1993 & 2000); two releases with The Higher Intelligence Agency, Polar Sequences (Beyond, 1996) and Birmingham Frequencies (Headphone 2000); an album, Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon, 1998), with Deathprod; and finally a collection of field recordings from Tibet, Cho Oyu (Ash International, 2006), under his real name. And that's just scratching the surface. However, after spending an entire week (!) revisiting Jenssen's contributions towards the evolution of ambient sound as we know it today, I settled picking Shenzhou for this writeup. That one, my friends, is a masterpiece. Shenzhou explores more than just dark atmospheres and loop based hypnotic soundscapes. Here Jenssen does something many musicians have tried to accomplish - use classical music as the main ingredient, but without being too overbearing, obvious, or just for its mere sake. In Shenzhou, Jenssen constructs haunting environmental passages based on orchestral works by Claude Debussy, La Mer (The Sea) and Jeux. During the beatless layers of lush pads, deep sonic bass, and dusty vinyl samples of strings and woodwinds, Jenssen builds on meditative templates inflicting a trance-like state for the mind relying on its pattern recognition capabilities. The subliminal waves of euphoria wash over the timeless expansion of sound throughout the universe of the void. The subtle contributions of Jenssen's own sound design only enhance Debussy's already melancholic impressionist approach. Purely genius. This work solidifies Biosphere's impact on ambient movement. Previously, Jennsen has been known to pioneer his own personal style - arctic ambient. The latter is thematically named for Jenssen's geographical and minimalist attributes. Born in Tromsø, a city in the Arctic Circle of Norway, Jenssen evoked the sense of isolation and arctic calm, more prominent in his earlier albums like Substrata (All Saints Records, 1997) and above mentioned Polar Sequences. But in Shenzhou the ice melts away into the ocean of sound. And with it we drift... and we drift... For a sensory deprived in-vacuum experience, pick up Biosphere's Autour de la Lune (Touch, 2004) [headphones with deep bass response recommended], as well as his latest, Dropsonde (Touch 2006). In 2007, Norwegian Beatservice Records, re-released the first three of Biosphere's albums - Microgravity, Patashnik, and Insomnia. Highly recommended for the likes of Gas, PanAmerican, Steve Roach, Robert Henke, Deaf Center and Murcof.
http://www.myspace.com/biosphereofficial | http://www.biosphere.no
http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
last.fm artist and label cloud mentioned in the above post: 2562, Pinch, Skream, Cyrus, Burial, A Made Up Sound, Dogdaze, Venetian Snares, Squarepusher, BLÆRG, BLAERG, Xanopticon, The Flashbulb, Enduser, Igorrr, Wisp, Mika Vainio, Ø, Ilpo Väisänen, Pan Sonic, Kentolevi, tekonivel, Philus, Jimi Tenor, Mike Ink, Gas, Autechre, Pan•American, Deerhunter, Stars of the Lid, Loscil, Atlas Sound, Benoît Pioulard, Valet, Christopher Bissonnette, Philip Jeck, Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek, Stephan Mathieu, The Sight Below, Lusine, Grouper, Yagya, Echospace, Christopher Willits, Cardopusher, innasekt, Pacheko, Ebola, Kaya Project, Deepak Pandit, Natasha Chamberlain, Sebastian James Taylor, Shakta, Asura, Tripswitch, Solar Fields, Entheogenic, Bluetech, Aidan Baker, Nadja, Leah Buckareff, Belong, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Jasper TX, Lawrence English, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Richie Hawtin, Plastikman, Heartthrob, Gaiser, Janek Schaefer, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Fennesz, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura, Oren Ambarchi, Alva Noto, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, Von Magnet, Sylvain Chauveau, Peter Broderick, Goldmund, Max Richter, Geir Jenssen, Biosphere, Panamerican, Steve Roach, Robert Henke, Deaf Center, Murcof
