- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
Samples and found sounds perfectlyblend and eventually any distinction between them becomes unimportant,such as when rain almost imperceptibly turns into the crackle of fire."a thousand petals" is not an album about dichotomies though, it is analbum about transmutation. All of the album's elements work in unisonto create an evolving aural landscape. Even things one would think tobe cliché, such as the thunderstorm on "in within" and the speech fromthe crazed Satanist on "pigs my fly," sound fresh as they'recomplimented with washes of sound and mood-altering rumbles. Vocalsamples, if not shrewdly buried, are processed, slowed, and distortedto become unrecognizable and camouflaged in this bleak terrain. Attimes the production sounds a bit muddy, as if too much noise islayered upon a track, but in the end the great moments of clarityillustrate glimpses of brilliance. "a thousand petals" is evocative andcompelling. Seek it out.
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
Raised from the ashes of Ursa Minor by that group'sSteven R. Smith, Mirza drew positive notices for their last record,1999's "Iron Compass Flux," but eventually called it quits. Ba Da Bing!brought this collection of their hard-to-find 12" EP release onAutopia, as well as unreleased tracks, in 2001, and it's an amazingglimpse of their early work as well as some of their best music ever.All the unreleased tracks are captured on 4-track cassette save the EPrecorded on 8-track, so all of these tracks are very gritty-sounding.And the music is purely punishing. And yet strangely delicate. Nicelyplaced horns and odd sounds bring out a variety seldom heard on otherreleases, and despite the lo fi recording the music never sounds blandor cacaphonous. Instead, it's some of the most melodic and structuredmusic Mirza ever did. As always, the playful bass makes for a greatanchor as the wild and destructive guitars play above it, and the drumsurge and drive the music faster and harder. At just over 64 minutes,"Last Clouds" is a spectacular posthumous nod to an underappreciatedand dynamic band.
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- Jessica Tibbits
- Albums and Singles
Regina Janssen's fragile, whispered vocals are a shiver amongst thelargely electronic backdrop. "Let's Get Slow" makes for a strong startto the album, with its low bass throbs and twangy guitar, the latter ofwhich featured heavily on their previous release. The other tracks onthe album take a more subtle approach, and tend to be not nearly asengaging. "Favourite Human" is the notable exception to this, throwingpolished record scratches and vibraphone into the mix, to create whatis one of the poppiest songs the band has done in recent years. My onlycomplaint is in regards to the uninspiring lyrics: much of the band'searly material was sung in French, and it is in those songs that theyare lyrically much more effective. 'Northern Classic', sung entriely inEnglish, lacks sophistication in this department, and unfortunatelypartially suffers for it. For the most part, however, the album iswell-produced and will likely delight fans of charming, uncomplicatedelectronic music who can overlook banal lyrics.
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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
It's simple, as his robot orchestra (the"Mecanium") play simple loops that Bastien adds flavors to, but it's anamazing listen considering the concept. The robots play realinstruments: castanets, marimba, and the clearly favored "discs."(They're on 8 out of 10 tracks) Bastien's background is in composingmusic for ballet and string quartet. It's wasy to picture a ballet tothe music he creates now, as it encourages movement and choreography.Plus, since it is mechanic in nature, steady rhythms abound. Bastienalso uses non-standard instruments, making for interesting colors on analready oddly charming canvas. The music is groovy, it is jazzy, and itis covered in earth tones, which is especially ironic considering itsgenesis. Ultimately, the music takes on a life of its own, eclipsingthe author's and robots' intentions, changing directions and rhythms onthe fly. I cannot describe this music and do it any justice. Listen foryourself and you'll get a taste for how truly original and stupefyingit all is.
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- Nate Smith
- Albums and Singles
The music is great, there's no doubt aboutit, but at the price this disc is going for ($18 in New York) it'sreally not worth buying, especially since the tracks are mostlyavailable on other discs (I think This Heat's first album, whichcontains "24 Track Loop," is still out of print, but you can find itused for $10 if you try). Maybe this is an OK comp for someone who'snever heard of any these bands, but I wouldn't recommend "20 Jazz FunkGreats" as quintessential Throbbing Gristle or "To Hell With Poverty"as a good start to your Gang of Four collection. The most infuriatingelements of this release, though, are the ridiculous liner notes, inwhich everything is talked about in terms of its relation to "Punk,"which is always capitalized for some reason, and its treatment of JohnLydon as some sort of musical god. Example: "Whilst appearing tocelebrate chaos, or rather because of it, [the Sex Pistols] inspiregroups to form wherever they play." That doesn't even make grammaticalsense, and it's an absurd statement to make. Incidentally, the word"whilst" is used about 20 times throughout the booklet, and the writer(Stuart Baker) changes tense from past to present every few sentences.From the section about Throbbing Gristle: "Although Throbbing Gristlecome into existence at the same time as many Punk bands such as The SexPistols and The Clash, and indeed share some of their values, the musicis a million miles away from them. Often described as anti-music,Throbbing Gristle experimented with sound like no one else beforethem." It's quite frustrating. You can get better ideas about the bandsfrom allmusic.com, and if you gave me an hour and the internet I couldmake a better, more thorough intro to the "second wave of Punk." Theonly good thing that might come out of this release is if people whobuy it actually follow through and buy these bands' actual records. Butif you are curious about any of these bands, forget this disc, pick oneor two of the bands you're really interested in and go buy theiralbums. It will be time and money better spent.
- A Certain Ratio - Shack Up
- This Heat - 24 Track Loop
- Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats
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- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
It's easy to dismiss The Wake, tooeasy. At a cursory listen one might be tempted to shrug them off as aJoy Division clone (of which they've been accused), or as a pop-likehybrid of Joy Division and the Cure. But like I said, that's too easy.The Wake may share similarities with these bands, especially since theysigned to Factory Records and therefore were label mates with JoyDivision, Section 25, and Cabaret Voltaire. But infusing all of thetracks on "Harmony & Singles" is a jangly post-punk, almostsynthpop, sensibility that the other bands, thanks to their emergencein the midst of first-wave punk, lack. While some of the lyrics mayfall a little flat, such as laments against god ("a fear of god / thegod of love") in "Judas" there are plenty of more powerful moments thatallow you to overlook these small missteps, such as the immediate punchof "Testament", whose strong bass line and catchy riff will getanyone's, even the most forlorn cooler-than-thou goth's, head bopping.Then, there are times, such as in "Patrol" or "Something Outside" thatthe synth elements may dominate and yet still keep those beguilingbeats and melodies fresh and fun enough to make you smile. And that'swhat separates The Wake from their more famous label mates: infectioussongs that are anything but oppressive, songs that strip away themelancholy, songs that border on love songs, to create strong post-punkpop. One of the best forgotten bands of the 80s, and we're lucky tohave them back. More reissues are on the way.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Possibly one of the most anticipated follow-ups is finally available. If you thought the eponymous debut double CD was mindblowing, you ain't heard nothin' yet. 'The Trial' once again sees the four core members playing songs together with strong improvisational origins, but this time it seems the emphasis has gone from astral exploration to an almost surrealistic horrific earthly adventure.
The same instrumental lineup forms the sounds (bozouki, guitar, tablas, electronics) but everything builds from an opening with field recordings into a maniac frenzy of electronic low bass rumbles, mad tablas and post drum-n-bass electronic whackery by the third track, "Mr. Titz (The Revelator)" (picture a call back to "First Dark Ride" with bozouki and tablas). With the accompanying visuals, the mental imagery I'm faced with is one of a surrealistic futuristic chase scene through a haunted rainforest.
Things calm down immediately after and the quartet return to more organic sounds with outdoor rain sounds, scraped violins and sparse guitars. Long, delayed guitars, electronic and acoustic noises follow in the beat-absent subsequent tracks. A crackling fire, guitar loops, bozouki and whispers through what's most likely a guitar pickup permeate the disc's last song, the colossal "A Glow in the Dark". After a miniature half-lullaby motif, some drone and bozouki interplays and about 17 minutes, silence falls. A minute later a brief but sweet guitar melody closes the disc. I still don't understand why bands choose to do "hidden" songs like this separated by a silence, but whatever.The rest of this incredible second album more than makes up for that.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Finally, the album that's had the electronic music community on the edge of its ergonomically designed chair for over three years is out - and it sounds like...Boards of Canada. The reaction to this record can go one of two routes: you can be annoyed that Boards of Canada are stuck in their public television-esque world and that their music sounds the same as it did four years ago, or you can accept Boards of Canada as being very specific in the kind of music they make, and enjoy it for what it is. The second option makes for a more pleasurable listen.
It's true that there are no real surprises here, though the Boards of Canada sound has been tweaked - if only slightly. The most noticeable difference between Geogaddi and Music Has The Right To Children is that Geogaddi is more organic and a little more abrasive in sound, things aren't quite as produced and sleek as Music Has The Right.... This is a good thing, almost a harkening back to their early self-released records Twoism and Boc Maxima, arguably their best work. One thing I particularly like about Boards of Canada is their ability to find the beauty in sounds that are not quite in tune, like a slightly warped record, and this is evident on tracks like "Gyroscope" and "Dawn Chorus." There's an even greater use of words and voice samples than before, especially on "1969," which contains the clearest bit of "lyrics" on the album ("1969 in the sunshine"). One thing I was worried about was that they were going to recycle some of the old tracks from their early days on the assumption that the majority of people had never heard them (Music Has The Right... was nearly half previously released songs), but luckily the album appears to almost completely new material. Again, there's a good ratio of minute-long abstract tracks in between the longer beats, and like Music Has The Right... it makes for a more varied, interesting album. It's no lie that Boards of Canada are largely responsible for the ridiculous number of awful "IDM" tracks floating around the world on CD and/or mp3 that contain one or more of the following elements: the sound of children laughing/playing, random voices spouting words or numbers, happy melodies over jagged electronic drumbeats, etc. Which makes it all the more impressive that Boards of Canada didn't retreat from these elements on Geogaddi; instead, they've embraced their nostalgic childhood aesthetic shamelessly: samples of a 4-H public service announcement about energy, song titles like "The Beach at Redpoint," kaleidoscopic images of smiling kids. But you also get the sense that they are poking fun at their image a little bit - there are so many instances on the record of people counting up from zero that it has to be joke, not to mention the female voice that says "yellow" in the middle of "Alpha and Omega" - both references to "Aquarius," arguably their most popular (and influential) track. The bottom line is, if you like Boards of Canada then you're probably going to like Geogaddi, and if you've been waiting for them to fuck up so you can say "Ha!" then you'll probably find something to pick on, but what's the point of that? Warp should be glad they have at least one artist left who still has a little bit of taste and restraint.
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- Carsten S.
- Albums and Singles
Packedin a c-shell case, the design leaves one with only a few hints but thesong titles. The web site provides more information about the musiciansand instruments, however. A sparse, relaxed atmosphere opens thisalbum. Live drums merge with synthesizers, a W.S. Burroughs quote getsthrown in, analog sounds and an old drum machine jump into action as aninteresting (yet undistracting) sound wall evolves. The album proceedsin a slightly morbid mood—not really unexpected with the title thisalbum bears. 45 Self offers a well-crafted variety settled somewherebetween the joyful use of any available sound source (somewhatremeniscent of older Severed Heads) and an overall distant attitude(not unlike early Factory bands like A Certain Ratio or Section 25).What I especially like is the way they use vocals as integral parts ofthe pieces—never placed in the foreground but working as an effectivesubliminal addition.
'Atzec Gameshow Death Ritual' is an original piece of work I recommendwholeheartedly. The duo consits of Matt Nevomanta (drums, percussion,bells, beats, loops, Moog, analog synths, sound effects, guitars, bass,voices, piano, and samples) and Mike Sullivan (Analog synths, Theremin,sound effects, Moog, airwave, samples, bells, percussion, and voices).It's (up to now) only available via www.45self.8m.com.
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- Richard SanFilippo
- Albums and Singles
While most Hands bands tend to get lost among each other and feelsomewhat homogenous (Winterkalt? excluded), Cybernetic:Fuckheadzmanages to stay fresh, thanks to the seemingly never ending assault ofthis album. It lets up only for a vocal sample here or there, andpounds away for fifteen tracks at nearly seventy minutes. In a genreperilously on the edge of staleness, if not already over it,Cybernetic:Fuckheadz has found a way to keep it interesting, as thebeats press on, yet varying the tempo and style on each track, thelevels of surface noise and distortion constantly fluctuating, and themore typical techno sounds, when they do appear, become so altered asto be barely recognizable and always keep you interested. Every beat,every noise is important and clearly discernable. Unlike some similarprojects, you don't gloss over anything because you've heard it before.This is industrial strength techno as it always should have been. Tothink anything else is to be stuck somewhere in the mid-nineties.
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- David Piniella
- Albums and Singles
Although the group started out as solely Spruance,Bungle drummer Danny Heifitz and bassist Trevor Dunn, it has expanded(especially live, where multi-instrumentalists Spruance, Heifitz andDunn can only play one role at a time,) to include violinist EyvindKang, percusionist Willian Winant, Bungle saxophonist Bar McKinnon andvarious others. But enough background, what do they sound like?Middle-eastern-techno-surf-guitar is probably the most honest answer.Their earliest material was comic book noises you might expect from aMr. Bungle side project, but SC3 quickly progressed into it's own; acombination of spiritualy-tinged eastern melodies, surf guitar, deathmetal and electronic techno. "Book M" is their most recent album, it'sliner notes filled with notes more apropos to conspiracy theorymanifestos, with it's talk of the holy grail, hints of the crusades ofthe middle ages, knights templar and illustrations of some sort ofhermetic crypto-calligraphy. Whatever all that stuff means, the musicitself is excellent and well worth seeking out. Plaintive melodies bysoaring violins and quiet hand drums followed by electronic breakbeats,followed by surf-rock drums, stuttering bombastic rock blastbeats segueinto melodic breaks that sound orchestrated; often in the same song. Iknow this fusion sounds kind of unlikely to sound good, but I swear itnot only works, it works well."Book M" (and SC3 in general,) is very much about spirituality andreligion, and the album is divided into three sections: Hearing Fire,Seeing Fire and Being Fire. Included in "Book M" is 'Zulfiqar III' aremix previously only available on abriefly-limited-and-then-very-out-of-print 7", as well as (reworked)studio versions of some of the material ("Combat for the Angel") fromtheir previous album, the excellent live "Eyes of Flesh, Eyes ofFlame". It strikes me that this would be a good way to introduce thosewho are not into world music into it; there's a foreign-ness to thisrecord, but it's electronic and rock facets might make it morepalatable to those unused to something purely non-western. This is axrecord of high quality instrumental fusion (of really disparateelements, true,) which should not be missed.
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