"Transform" is Nicolai solo as Alva Noto and it is his second disc assuch for Mille Plateaux, follow-up to last year's "Prototypes". Bothare all about minimalism deeply rooted in microscopic mathematicalcoding and structure. It's kinda funny now because I really enjoy(ed)the first disc and was looking forward to more in a similar vein at thetime, but now that I have it I'm not as satisfied as I should be.Unfortunately for me (and perhaps Nicolai) is that in the time that haspassed between the two albums his collaborations with others haveinjected new and different blood into the mix with varying and excitingresults. With "Transform" were back to just Nicolai's evolutionarycomposition techniques and standard set of audio building blocks - thefull range of waves, pulses and drones, glitches, metallic pops andclicks, etc. The quality of his solo work is just as good but myperception of it has changed some ... it seems exceedingly academic andsterile in comparison now. That said, there are still a number ofmildly funky (well, about as funky as a German with a laptop canpossibly be) grooves to be found among the 10 tracks or 'modules' asthey're referred to here. But here's hoping that more collaborativework is in store.
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