Though this release came out back in June of 2001, I thought it deserved some mentioning here. And although Susumu's last album, "Sakura," gained him amazingly good press, including "Best Electronica Album of the Year" from The Wire magazine, this newer album struck me as being more progressive and subtle than his previous recordings: pure electronic bliss when at its best moments. Other times it can fade into the background but such is the nature of much ambient music. This album has apparently gained him "genuis" status amongst many of his contemporary artists and critics alike, comparing him to other such electro-luminaries as Aphex Twin and the legendary Brian Eno. The airy layers here can be truly beautiful, branching to anywhere from an oddly jazzy improv feel with fuzzy, minimalistic piano melodies, down to droney samples, trip-hop-esque beats and spacey (yet quite homely) instrumentation. The emotions here tend to leave me a bit on the bland side, but it seems more about the production and sound quality with this release - and it certainly is precise. This album was released on The Leaf Label in conjunction with Skintone.
 
Sometimes a piece of music enters your life and has a tough time leaving your CD player. The debut full-lengther from this New Orleans-based duo happens to be one of the most addictive albums I have heard in months. I have said this before and I'll say it again: great organic musicians make for great electronic musicians, and we have heard hints of what this duo could do earlier this year with their contributions to the Scarlet Diva soundtrack as well as some remix they allegedly did for Nine Inch Nails.
Rotoscope are a 6 piece group that share a producer and members withthe acclaimed Norwegian jazz collective Jaga Jazzist. Theirinstrumentation includes electronics, keyboards, saxophones, clarinets,guitar, bass, drums, percussion and vibraphone, but it's the productionthat may very well be the most important component. Original recordingshave obviously been obliterated, mangled or enhanced by cut and pasteediting, the end result being 10 tracks that balance jazz, pop andelectronica in widely varying degrees. "Press Stop", "The Bogota Sub"and "Noiserok Orkesterissa" contain the most manic juxtapositions andjams of spliced audio/vocal bits and jazzy drum 'n bass rhythms. Buteven within these 3 there are melodic counterpoints or moments of calmto be found and, often, vice versa within the other tracks. ChristineSantorv's girlish, somewhat intentionally strained vocals (in English)help give about half of the disc a soft and sweet feminine quality."All That You Owned (Remix)" places her words amidst seemingly randomglitch crackles, piano notes and bass surges. "Pink Soda", "CarpetIllusions" and "Traveller" are pleasant and perhaps the most 'pop' dueto the vocals and subdued acoustic guitar, wind and keyboard melodies."Watercooler" and "Divide And Dissolve" are experimentally mindedsoundscapes while "Cooks Whip, Music Goes On" is a nice stroll throughthe park as solo saxophone, vibes and bass glide over an electronicallytreated beat. "Great Curves" is a rather schizophrenic album but itreally works. There's something for everyone. Up next is 3 new vocalsongs to be released as the "Exclusively For Everyone EP No. 1" onJester ...
Origami Galaktika are the most active 'unit' of several dozen under theOrigami Republika umbrella, an "open cultural network with 170+ agentsoperating in 18 countries on 4 continents" with origins in Norway (seehttp://kunst.no/origami/ for further information). This double CDremasters and reissues 2 of their ambient/loop albums from 1994 and1996. Six vivid paintings in the insert by Cicille RisÎsen complete thepackage. "Stjernevandring" is 2 tracks at about half an hour apiece.The lapping ocean waves and cold, dark and dense droning undertow ofthe title track become fully immersive within a few minutes. I amliterally sitting on a sound in Norway in the dead of winter and middleof the night watching a relatively calm sea break upon the moorings.Nautical bells appear and by mid track the waves disappear - but theyalways remain subconsciously - then reappear during a simple but spooky8 note melody loop. None of the other tracks has such a distinctaudible tie to nature but each evokes a certain feeling (which is all Ihave to go on really since I'm unable to translate the Norwegian andEstonian titles). "MÎnedans" is next and the feeling is one ofascension and reflection. We steadily climb upwards through the clouds,a constant soft drone being the guiding light. By the 14th minuteelectronics swirl in then settle into their own respective glide path.A few lone notes near the very end seem to deliver a favorable finaljudgment. Beautiful. Disc 2 is "Eesti Lilled Silmad SÙda" and it has 4tracks in the 10 to 17 minute range. It's just as good if not betterwith another palette of relaxing sounds: graceful, emotive drones andfaint hums, scrapes and rattles, sample loops of what sounds like atrain over tracks, a woman reciting text in a foreign tongue, the quietpitter patter of hand drums, rain stick and some ritualistic vocalmoaning. There is no hurry to get anywhere and that's fine by me. Infact, every one of these tracks could be the length of an entire disc,no problem. These albums are quickly becoming some of my favoriterecent ambient works, along with Stars of the Lid "Gravitational Pullvs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life" and Zammuto "Solutiore of Stareau".
Taking a stopgap between full-length albums, Pram deliver a nine-trackEP featuring some new stuff, an old tune and some mixing going on. Thedisc opens with the insanely frisky "Mother of Pearl," which ironicallywas my fave pic from last year's 'Museum of Imaginary Animals'long-player. The three new songs which follow are notably moreadventurous than the cuts on the album, incorporating much more of aimprovisational feel, even with the pop song "Monkey Puzzle" and thesurrealistic dreamery of "Clock Without Hands" which could easily echosome of Legendary Pink Dots' most carnival-esque moments. The EP isrounded out with five remixes, thankfully all of different songs and bydifferent remixers. Hint to groups: do stuff like this if you can - tenremixes of the same song on one single gets embarassingly dull. Guestknob-twiddlers include Plone (whose remixes always sound awesomedespite their albums sounding like bad 14-yr old musicians demos), AndyVotel, Sam Jones, Terry:Funken, and Sir Real. While I have admired Pramfor years, I have to confess that I can't always make it through acomplete album, but with the mix-up of styles presented here by thevarious DJs and friends I'm quite satisfied. Old fans might scoff atremixes but I'm confident these are tasteful enough to avoid pissingoff the purists and inviting enough to attract new friends.
The first Bows album, "Blush" surfaced in 1999 — a collective ofmusicians and singers helmed by former Long Fin Killiemulti-instrumentalist Luke Sutherland. This year's swirly, well-craftedfollow-up once again showcases a diverse ensemble of talented musiciansand singers, resulting in a lush, oneiric symphony. Sutherland, who hasjust completed his second novel, is as masterful as ever with hisunabashedly poetic lyrics, beautifully worded even when the imagery isat its most violent. "Cuban Welterweight Rumbles Hidden Hitmen" is aperfect example: stripped down to nothing more than a gauzy guitar andDanish singer Signe HÀirup Wille-JÀrgensen's airy vocals while thelyrics honey-coat a melancholy tale of a boxer's run-in with a gang ofthugs. Ruth Emond's voice on other songs like, "Wonderland," provides aremarkable contrast as her style is deep, dark and breathy. Sutherlandis doubtless at his most versatile on Cassidy. His own delicate vocalsfeature prominently on several tracks, as does his guitar, piano andviolin playing (which also received some exposure recently on his stinttouring with fellow countrymen Mogwai). Credits on the songs "Uniroyal"and "Luftsang" list Sutherland's instruments among others as "gizmo"and "machines." In constrast to Bows' previous effort, 'Cassidy'abounds with more live instrumentation, but lacks much of the drum 'n'bass hooks of 'Blush' (and their presence is somewhat bemoaned by thisreviewer). Sutherland has truly demonstrated maturity and progression,a graduation from the realm of 90s trip hop.
There are two types of people that will buy this 2-disc set: those who have every single release Godflesh has ever thought about putting out and those who don't have any Godflesh at all. The first disc, subtitled 'flesh of god', is a best-of collection (not my personal favorites, but hey, what can you do?) the 'Slavestate' and 'Pure' album tracks are remastered by Justin Broadrick, but otherwise the first disc's tracks are just selected album tracks from their first album (1988's "Godflesh") to their most recent (2000's "Us & Them").
Justin Brodrick has obviously been busy reinventing his aggressive side(anybody who's half of Godflesh are legally obliged to have aggressivetendencies), with the collaborative singles "Dead Man's Curse" (withAnti-Pop Consortian, Roger Robinson) and "Megaton" (with Dälek) overthe last year. Along with partner Kevin Martin, the duo's 'Brotherhood'is an all-out sound war, with heavily distorted beats andearthquake-influenced bass frequencies. The sound is thick and chunkylike some of the best Panacea ball-crushing bass sounds and never flatenough to be birthed from a laptop. Fans of the ambient deathscapesfrom 1995's 'Re-Entry' or the collaborations with Alec Empire andPorter Ricks should probably exercise caution before picking this oneup, as it picks up more from where the ICE (collaboation with El-P)album 'Bad Blood' left off. As far as Techno Animal proper records,picture 'Radio Hades' with an exponentially increased intensity. Guestrap from El-P, Dälek, and members of Anti-Pop Consortium vocalize therage but thankfully don't detract any vigor from the music nor litterevery track on the disc. Elements from Techno Animal's dub affinityshine through in some of the more instrumental tracks on the disc butfor the most part, this is one fierce fucking beast.
Frankie Sparo toured with A Silver Mt. Zion throughout Canada andEurope as an opening artist following the release of last year's "MyRed Scare" album. During his performances, he was accompanied byThierry, Sophie, Jessica, and Ian of the Silver Mt. Zion live band.This EP, which acts as a document of Sparo's performances during thetour, was performed live in session at VPRO Radio. The first threesongs are new arrangements of tracks from the "Red Scare" album."Diminish Me NYC" opens the CD; this new version features the additionof minimal electronics and violin that emphasize Sparo'smore-tattered-than-usual voice. "The Night That We Stayed In" is madedarker by the addition of Thierry's double bass and a pair of violinlines. The addition of tremolo violins gives a soundtrack feel as well."Here Comes the Future" features reworked drums and the addition ofelectronics and violins, which make it a much fuller composition.However, there's a drum machine clap noise that appears several timesthat sounds a bit out of place. The EP ends with a stripped down coverof the Rolling Stones' "I Am Waiting," performed solely by Frankie andhis guitar. I really hope this is a sign of things to come, because theguests on this recording add a lot to Frankie Sparo's already amazingsongs.
Detention is the improvisational duo of guitarist Sam Shalabi (ofShalabi Effect) and drummer Alexander MacSween. Normally Mr. Shalabi'simprov recordings are quite beautiful in their energy, but this onefalls flat. There are 8 tracks to the album, each with two names (I'mguessing Sam and Alex each gave the songs their own titles). After thefirst track ("Yehudi Messerschmidt / Ground)," the album is almost nolonger interesting. The two musicians do not play off of each otherwell enough to keep the music interesting, partially because of thesmall size of the band. To make matters worse, the music becomes verysloppy in places, especially on "Slow Dance / Shey," where it feelslike the band is just warming up before the rest of the quartet showsup. The album peaks with the sixth track, "Big Thighs / Ginger," whereboth musicians seem to finally be in touch with each other for a fewmoments. However, with the last two songs, the music loses all meaningand the album simply seems to die. If you want to hear Sam Shalabiimprovise and shine, I suggest you check out the Kristian / Shalabi /Saint-Onge album from earlier this year.
