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Wevie de Crepon, "The Age Old Age of Old Age"

Sonig
With this new mini-album, Wevie de Crepon follows Kai Althoff'sWorkshop as the newest pleasant surprise from the Sonig label. TheMouse on Mars-owned imprint has consistently combated IDM's sterilespectre with highly original electronic music, often of a popsensibility, but Wevie, like Workshop before them, throw evenestablished Sonig innovators for a loop. Wevie de Crepon, previouslyrecording as Wevie Stonder for Skam records, have made an absurd,sample-ful comedy record set to a (jarringly) diverse bed of electronicsong-craft. Comparisons to Negativland come easily, but Wevie's obtuse,thoroughly apolitical content puts them somewhere else entirely. Thesongs' two-minute pop bursts also separate them from Negativland'ssprawling cut-up orgies; most tracks on The Age Old Age of Old Agefeature a grounding beat with one lengthy sample laid on top, actingalmost as a vocal to the jubilant backing music. The result is that themost absurd of sampled material (like British pseudo-crime dramadialogue, or David Lynch digressing about a duck's eyeball) meshesseamlessly with music that would by itself be marketable to the IDMcrowd. These backing tracks range from full on drill n'bass hoe-downsand Too Pure-ish bliss-out sections, to bouncy, kitsch-laden groovesrecalling Stock, Hausen & Walkman. A keen appreciation of kitsch isessential to the enjoyment of this music, for no level of pristineproduction (certainly present here) is enough to prevent the averagelistener from muttering "the hell is this, then" at least once. One iswarned, after all, by the atrocious cover art; Wevie de Crepon is notfor everyone. The Age Old Age of Old Age runs most "serious"electronic music through a hilarious cycle of degeneration that will beunsettling for those hesitant to give up their respective ghosts.Perhaps this music contains a political agenda after all, one promotingself-criticism, patience, and most of all, a sense of humor. 

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