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Presentperfect, "Dispelling the Analog Myth"
This is the first release from Text Records (not to be confused withFridge's own UK-based label), a sub-label affiliated with TinmanRecords, devoted to electronic experimental and ambient music. Thealbums released on Text heavily depart from the more straightforwardindustrial found on Tinman, such as early Crocodile Shop and I,Parasite.
Presentperfect uses loops in order to illustrate theimperfections of analog. From the band's website: "Even the sine wave,and the seductive curvature of science, in its universe of ideals, cannot be considered analog. For every complete cycle there isdiscontinuity and interruption. It is not the amount of something butthe amount of nothing that distinguishes pitch." While the idea isintriguing and the music attempts to explore and express some of thescience and mathematics behind electronic music, in the end, it's notfocused enough on the music itself. I found little here to beemotionally, or intellectually, engaging. The first track, "WintersTuesday," at about sixteen minutes, could easily have been pared downto half that time and managed to make it's point—the drones becomeexcessive and border on monotonous, the kiss-of-death for ambientmusic. The same can be said for many of the other tracks, whoseexcessive length create a sense of detachment, you wait for it to moveon, hope it moves on, and it rarely does. But there are some greatmoments on this CD. It may be worth picking up solely for theunfortunately too short "Digital Bath," which actually moves toward abeat-oriented and noisier realm. It was enough to make me wonder howgreat a rhythmic Presentperfect album would sound. The surroundingtracks just do not sustain a momentum that propels me through the albumas a listener. In the end I felt much like the drones on this CD: flatand distant.
Presentperfect uses loops in order to illustrate theimperfections of analog. From the band's website: "Even the sine wave,and the seductive curvature of science, in its universe of ideals, cannot be considered analog. For every complete cycle there isdiscontinuity and interruption. It is not the amount of something butthe amount of nothing that distinguishes pitch." While the idea isintriguing and the music attempts to explore and express some of thescience and mathematics behind electronic music, in the end, it's notfocused enough on the music itself. I found little here to beemotionally, or intellectually, engaging. The first track, "WintersTuesday," at about sixteen minutes, could easily have been pared downto half that time and managed to make it's point—the drones becomeexcessive and border on monotonous, the kiss-of-death for ambientmusic. The same can be said for many of the other tracks, whoseexcessive length create a sense of detachment, you wait for it to moveon, hope it moves on, and it rarely does. But there are some greatmoments on this CD. It may be worth picking up solely for theunfortunately too short "Digital Bath," which actually moves toward abeat-oriented and noisier realm. It was enough to make me wonder howgreat a rhythmic Presentperfect album would sound. The surroundingtracks just do not sustain a momentum that propels me through the albumas a listener. In the end I felt much like the drones on this CD: flatand distant.
