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Karl Him, "Electronic Lament"
The first release from new Irish label Spitroast kicks off superbly. Asyou would guess by the title, this is quite melancholic stuff, not 4/4pumpin' house.
"Electronic Lament pt1" opens the disc beautifully asmachines buzz and swoop, cracking and hissing, like a dodgy FM radiosignal. The melody rises and falls, much like a seagull gliding throughsome mild turbulence. "Pt 1" sounds warm and somewhat organic, despitethe source, almost as if it was made on a wooden clockwork computer orsomething.
While track 1 is a good indicator of what's to come, it's hardly ablueprint for the record. 14 tracks of warm, fuzzy electronica followin just over 30 minutes. 'Electronic Lament' isn't entirely withoutbeats, but never samey. It's like the link music you hear on FutureSound of London albums used to connect tracks — 10 second pieces youwish would continue for another few minutes, but are over too fast. On"Norway," Him introduces some live instrumentation, with a laid backguitar in the mix a'la Savath + Savalas. A slightly longer song,"Straight," sounds like it could have come from the last Stars of theLid album, while the fifth track is probably the most minimal of therecord - a simple vibraphone piece which, despite having no clearlydistinguishable melody, is still remarkably hummable. "Electonic Lamentpt2" ups the dissonance a little with the ever-present backgroundstatic coming to the fore, yet never getting ugly, the melody stillwatertight.
The second half is just as good, featuring a Steve Reich-esqueinterlocking vibraphone piece, a guitar piece (just a guitar loop)which starts off like the last 10 minutes of Low's 'Born by the wires',just that familiarjing...jjiiiinnnngggg.......jing...jiiiinnnnngggg.... Half-way throughits short running time some plucked folk guitar comes in, weavingaround the crashing chords. Just fabulous.
The only problem with the album is when to put it on. It's the kind ofthing to play while having trouble sleeping and yet it's too engagingto drift off to. The result would easily be more wide awake thanbefore. I don't recommend trying to do anything while this is on, evendoing this review I had to turn it off in order to write anything.Listen to it on the bus or train, and you'll just close your eyes,float away and reopen them at the terminus. This is real cinematic [ormaybe more video art] music. The images which come to mind are ofbirds, fish, or that floating bag from American Beauty. Avoiding allthe pitfalls of glitch electronica (there's only one track where youcheck to see the disc isn't scratched) it's a fantastic debut for bothartist and label, and a great start to the year. Just press play, closeyour eyes and follow the sounds.
"Electronic Lament pt1" opens the disc beautifully asmachines buzz and swoop, cracking and hissing, like a dodgy FM radiosignal. The melody rises and falls, much like a seagull gliding throughsome mild turbulence. "Pt 1" sounds warm and somewhat organic, despitethe source, almost as if it was made on a wooden clockwork computer orsomething.While track 1 is a good indicator of what's to come, it's hardly ablueprint for the record. 14 tracks of warm, fuzzy electronica followin just over 30 minutes. 'Electronic Lament' isn't entirely withoutbeats, but never samey. It's like the link music you hear on FutureSound of London albums used to connect tracks — 10 second pieces youwish would continue for another few minutes, but are over too fast. On"Norway," Him introduces some live instrumentation, with a laid backguitar in the mix a'la Savath + Savalas. A slightly longer song,"Straight," sounds like it could have come from the last Stars of theLid album, while the fifth track is probably the most minimal of therecord - a simple vibraphone piece which, despite having no clearlydistinguishable melody, is still remarkably hummable. "Electonic Lamentpt2" ups the dissonance a little with the ever-present backgroundstatic coming to the fore, yet never getting ugly, the melody stillwatertight.
The second half is just as good, featuring a Steve Reich-esqueinterlocking vibraphone piece, a guitar piece (just a guitar loop)which starts off like the last 10 minutes of Low's 'Born by the wires',just that familiarjing...jjiiiinnnngggg.......jing...jiiiinnnnngggg.... Half-way throughits short running time some plucked folk guitar comes in, weavingaround the crashing chords. Just fabulous.
The only problem with the album is when to put it on. It's the kind ofthing to play while having trouble sleeping and yet it's too engagingto drift off to. The result would easily be more wide awake thanbefore. I don't recommend trying to do anything while this is on, evendoing this review I had to turn it off in order to write anything.Listen to it on the bus or train, and you'll just close your eyes,float away and reopen them at the terminus. This is real cinematic [ormaybe more video art] music. The images which come to mind are ofbirds, fish, or that floating bag from American Beauty. Avoiding allthe pitfalls of glitch electronica (there's only one track where youcheck to see the disc isn't scratched) it's a fantastic debut for bothartist and label, and a great start to the year. Just press play, closeyour eyes and follow the sounds.
