Temporary Residence
Few have suffered the changes and shifts Tarentel have and continued to make music. After at least six personnel changes (and at least as many releases, including two full-lengths), Tarentel collect their singles from 1999-2000 here on one CD. Tarentel have always created sprawling compositions, often with very simple beginnings that build to more orchestrated heights, and this release shows their evolution as a group well. It all begins with "The Waltz," with very pretty guitar and bass in—you guessed it—waltz time, which is a very solid instrumental track though not very original or grabbing at first listen. The experimentation with laptop noise begins on "Looking for Things," another gorgeous track with insular sounds jutting in for effect as well as what sounds like sampled radio at the end. Things really get going with the visceral double-shot of "Two Sides of Myself" parts One and Two (also the shortest tracks of the album), with a haunting structure and feel. These tracks were the most moving to me, as they do show two sides to Tarentel: the structured, planned side, and the morphing, amoebic side. Both are effective, but only because the band separates them so well here. Together, they don't work as well. Especially when they end up resulting in a twenty-five minute exploration like "Searching for Things." It probably started out as a great piece of music, but then it gets dragged out for no apparent reason with echoes of percussion and guitar in the background and seeming transmissions from space and guitar in the foreground. I like Tarentel, and this release works well to show their strengths and compile their ever-changing sound. I'd just like to hear more music in the huge span of time. As a whole, though, this is great music for aquariums, from the shark tank to the sardine bowl.
Few have suffered the changes and shifts Tarentel have and continued to make music. After at least six personnel changes (and at least as many releases, including two full-lengths), Tarentel collect their singles from 1999-2000 here on one CD. Tarentel have always created sprawling compositions, often with very simple beginnings that build to more orchestrated heights, and this release shows their evolution as a group well. It all begins with "The Waltz," with very pretty guitar and bass in—you guessed it—waltz time, which is a very solid instrumental track though not very original or grabbing at first listen. The experimentation with laptop noise begins on "Looking for Things," another gorgeous track with insular sounds jutting in for effect as well as what sounds like sampled radio at the end. Things really get going with the visceral double-shot of "Two Sides of Myself" parts One and Two (also the shortest tracks of the album), with a haunting structure and feel. These tracks were the most moving to me, as they do show two sides to Tarentel: the structured, planned side, and the morphing, amoebic side. Both are effective, but only because the band separates them so well here. Together, they don't work as well. Especially when they end up resulting in a twenty-five minute exploration like "Searching for Things." It probably started out as a great piece of music, but then it gets dragged out for no apparent reason with echoes of percussion and guitar in the background and seeming transmissions from space and guitar in the foreground. I like Tarentel, and this release works well to show their strengths and compile their ever-changing sound. I'd just like to hear more music in the huge span of time. As a whole, though, this is great music for aquariums, from the shark tank to the sardine bowl.
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As the title may suggest, the latest release from the once nomadic James Bradell (aka Funki Porcini) is a wonderous collection of musical dreamscapes and headnodding grooves to relax with. Assisted by the musical (and visual) talents of Team Alcohol (Rupert Small), the disc's fourteen compositions, comprised of droning synth and guitar layers, funky, jazzy rhythms and sampled dialogue that sounds right out of a sci-fi B-movie, vary from subtle to conspicuous.
When we left Loscil—aka Scott Morgan—last, he had released his debut 'Triple Point' to much acclaim, and was preparing to tour behind the release. That was scant a year ago, and now Loscil is back, having toured the earth and recorded a mother of a concept album. 'Submers' is very much a continuation of the same ideals Morgan has upheld before—singular artistic vision, music created on keyboards and computers—but he plumbs new territories this time around.
"Bang bang! That awful sound!" said Cher in a song of the same name, and like any critical listener in search of a cheap laugh I was primed to apply that reference here. After all, it's easy enough for an instrumental rock group to come off as either hideously discordant or sleep-inducingly masturbatory. But the problem is, even the most awful sounds on Oma Yang’s second full-length release are sublime, and theirs is the sort of masturbation you'd pay good money to see (though you might not want to volunteer for clean-up duty afterwards).
After numerous tours of rapping live, Cex has finally released his first album with rhymes. While those who only know his instrumental output might be put off by this, others, like I, who have been following his career a little more closely will be more than satisfied with the first true expression of the Baltimore boy wonder's talents.
Sit down, make yourself comfortable, this album is far from both the post-industrial noise nor the minimalistic drone stuff David Jackman is usually known for his releases as Organum. Recorded between 1990 and 1993 (originally released in 1994), the album opens with the stunning epic 16¬Ω-minute, "Aurora," which is probably the closest Organum got to Taj Mahal Tavelers. "Aurora" features fantastic guitar sounds, exotic wind instruments, and unidentifiable shining and piercing other sounds by Dinah Jane Rowe, Christoph Heemann and Jim O'Rourke.
So I'm playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City the other day, or, as I like to put it, my new "vice". Yes, I'm witty. [keep trying - ed.] Anyway, this game takes place in the eighties, and I noticed that they chose to get the rights to actual music this time instead of inventing their own, which probably put a lot of mediocre artists out of work. It's a better game for it (nothing like running over a street hustler while listening to "Broken Wings"), but after eight straight hours of gameplay, even that can get tiring, especially when you consider that each station only has about eight or ten songs.
The Welsh musical artist Dafydd Morgan has sought to musically document rugged, wind-swept landscapes over the course of his career as Stylus, and 'Archif:01,' a collection of various non-album tracks between 1997 and 2000, fits cleanly into that agenda.
The core of Sybarite's album 'Nonument' (yes, there are nine songs to accompany the pun) sounds like the dallying analog electronics of ISAN mixed with some guitar and live percussion. Horns and cellos also dot the landscape created by Sybarite's Xian Hawkins.
