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ARC/AIDAN BAKER, "REPERCUSSION"
Greg Clow and Sheryl Kirby are inaugurating their Toronto based PieheadRecords with an ambitious CD-R subscription series. If Mr. Clow's namedoesn't ring any bells you're either in the wrong place or haven't beenonline very long: DJ, event promoter, writer, discography and websiteguru, Brainwashed staff member, etc. Piehead is the next logical stepfor Clow and Kirby to bring many local electronic and experimentalartists, not to mention a few other well known names, to a wideraudience.
Each of the 11 individual artist discs are limited to 250 forsale copies and the 12th disc will be a compilation of tracks from allof the artists. The only way to get any of these is to get them all viaa subscription. I took the financial plunge and I'm already happy Idid. ARC and Aidan Baker first collaborated at Toronto's The AmbientPing weekly live event. This disc features 56 minutes worth of materialrecorded there this year with additional overdubbing by Aidan Baker.Richard Baker and Christopher Kukiel lay down tribal / Middle Easternrhythms in the form of drums, percussion, kalimba, djembe, dumbec andtabla while Aidan handles guitar and various other instruments."Transform" sets the tone as richly textured ambiance and activerhythms blend, the percussion slowly melting away by the 11th minuteleaving just the dreamy background loop. At this point, comparisons toStars of the Lid are unavoidable but warranted. On "Arise" the rolesare reversed as the lazy guitar chords and frayed notes (I'd almostswear I hear whale song in there somewhere) are sparingly flecked withthe gentlest plunks of percussion. "Writhe" and "Slight Return/Raze"seem to add more buried tape samples and miscellaneous otherabstractions, mixing and alternating the ambient and rhythmic elementswith perfect grace. Lovely, absolutely lovely. The best thing youhaven't heard so far this year. The next disc is 'The Canadian SpellingProgram' by Hellothisisalex. Oh, and those other better known names? Acertain San Francisco based duo as Vague Terrain Recordings and V/Vm.Make some room in your budget right now, and visit www.pieheadrecords.com for series subscription info. -
Each of the 11 individual artist discs are limited to 250 forsale copies and the 12th disc will be a compilation of tracks from allof the artists. The only way to get any of these is to get them all viaa subscription. I took the financial plunge and I'm already happy Idid. ARC and Aidan Baker first collaborated at Toronto's The AmbientPing weekly live event. This disc features 56 minutes worth of materialrecorded there this year with additional overdubbing by Aidan Baker.Richard Baker and Christopher Kukiel lay down tribal / Middle Easternrhythms in the form of drums, percussion, kalimba, djembe, dumbec andtabla while Aidan handles guitar and various other instruments."Transform" sets the tone as richly textured ambiance and activerhythms blend, the percussion slowly melting away by the 11th minuteleaving just the dreamy background loop. At this point, comparisons toStars of the Lid are unavoidable but warranted. On "Arise" the rolesare reversed as the lazy guitar chords and frayed notes (I'd almostswear I hear whale song in there somewhere) are sparingly flecked withthe gentlest plunks of percussion. "Writhe" and "Slight Return/Raze"seem to add more buried tape samples and miscellaneous otherabstractions, mixing and alternating the ambient and rhythmic elementswith perfect grace. Lovely, absolutely lovely. The best thing youhaven't heard so far this year. The next disc is 'The Canadian SpellingProgram' by Hellothisisalex. Oh, and those other better known names? Acertain San Francisco based duo as Vague Terrain Recordings and V/Vm.Make some room in your budget right now, and visit www.pieheadrecords.com for series subscription info. - samples:
