31 March 2014

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Without a doubt, the fact that Klara Lewis is the daughter of Graham Lewis (Wire, Dome, He Said) is going to garner a significant amount of attention for Ett. While hopefully it helps to spread awareness of its release, by no means does she need to rely on her father’s reputation to garner acclaim for this album. Her penchant for deconstructing dance music into something completely different may be genetically inherited, but this is entirely Klara's show, and a brilliant show it is.

Editions Mego

The songs that make up Ett either emphasize fragmented, perceptible rhythmic structures or more open ended, found sound and texture collages of various noises.The two styles sit alongside each other quite well, and they share a similar sensibility of exploration rather than darkness, the latter often being a constant characteristic of similar artists.Rather than focusing on bleak moods, Lewis's sound is one of experimentation, but in an inquisitive, enjoyable manner.

I am hesitant to use the phrase beat oriented to describe these pieces, but it is the best descriptor, even if the term beat is being used in the loosest of senses."c a t t" has Lewis molding crunchy processed sounds into a rudimentary structure with deep bass hits and sampled piano.Even with its distended, abstract feel, it comes across as a unique take on house music.Low end pulses mimic kick drums throughout "Untitled" and, with its complex build and cut up voices, rivals the best work on the Raster-Noton label.

The rhythms on "Shine" are at first insinuated through looped fragments and mixed with lush, melodic passages before coming together into a more conventional structure.The long "Altered" is similar, with Lewis using its 12-plus minute duration to drift between wet, percussive textures and light ambient synth passages, scattering bits of what sounds like conventional techno in here and there to mix things up.Even amidst these changes and variations, however, it stays together nicely as a fully realized composition.

Other pieces on Ett are less rhythmic and instead utilize what sounds like found samples and field recordings, processed and treated to be completely unidentifiable.Islamic calls to prayer and chirping birds make for some of the few discernible elements on "Muezzin," but with the slightly off kilter interlocking loops, I could not help but be reminded of Cabaret Voltaire's "Eastern Mantra" in spirit.

A descending bass melody may hide amongst the static and noise puffs on "49th Hour," but as a whole the mix stays open and spacious, introducing unique treated bits of sound that move dynamically throughout the work.Similarly, there may be a loose semblance of rhythm within "Surfaced," but it is mostly obscured by collaged sounds and destroyed samples to make it all but invisible.

Ett is an astoundingly developed and mature debut record for a new artist working in any genre, but it is especially striking in this more experimental style.There are simply so many pitfalls possible when a new artist works in these abstract realms, and Lewis manages to avoid them all.With its compelling, understated rhythms and captivating mangled samples and recordings, the whole album exceeded my highest expectations.

samples:

• c a t t
• Muezzin
• Altered

 

31 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

As synthpop begat EBM and industrial 2.0 some three decades ago, the recent minimal wave scene has given birth to its own dance music with a distortion pedal offspring, and I for one have been very happy about it. It was this sort of music that started me down the road to unconventional and experimental music as a teenager, so I have a special affinity for it. Youth Code might be getting all of the media accolades, but this debut from High-Functioning Flesh shows they are just as deserving, and I would give them the edge as far as memorable songwriting goes.

DKA

It was a record club copy of Skinny Puppy's Last Rights, which started the ball rolling for me, and it was not long before I was exploring associated bands such as Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and the ilk.My love affair was short lived though, because within a few years, I lost interest in even what my favorite artists were doing, choosing to pass on their new releases in lieu of the albums I already had.
Looking back, there were two main reasons for this, both of which do not apply to HFF.First, the sound simply got too polished.Sampling became the norm, as did complex multitrack digital recordings and software instruments, so the jagged synthesizers and inhuman sounding drum machines fell by the wayside.Second, I realized that it was such an insular, closed off scene that I wanted nothing to do with.A Unity of Miseries keeps its layering sparse without being unnecessarily minimalist, focusing more on catchy basslines and memorable melodies but with a nice dirty edge.As far as scene cred goes, one look at the video for "Self-Management" and seeing vocalist Susan Subtract’s bolo tie and the paisley button down shirt that keyboardist Greg Vand is sporting proves how far removed they are from the PVC pants and gas mask world.

Of the seven songs that make up A Unity of Miseries, four are polished versions of ones that appeared on their online demo tape last year, but stronger and more realized."Rigid Embrace" has the duo embracing electro the most, pairing a brittle bass sequence and sharp, inhuman drums."Touch Oblivion Icon" is perhaps the most laconic song on here, shuffling along at a moderate tempo amongst sparse synths and some of Subtract's more detached vocals, here more Jean-Luc De Meyer than Douglas McCarthy.

HFF might not be secretive about their influences, but "Glowing Dripping" makes for the only moment that feels like an emulation of another artist. With Subtract's manic screams, metallic rhythms and tight bassline, I could have easily been deceived into believing it was a lost That Total Age era Nitzer Ebb song, at least until the synth pad accents come in and add a bit too much complexity to sound like that legendary duo.If they were going to ape a band’s sound, for me they picked the right one, and the right album.

The strongest assets are the songs appearing for the first time, and they demonstrate how much the band has evolved within a single year.The aforementioned "Self-Management" makes for the perfect single with its anthematic stomp.It might take a fair amount of time to fully open up, letting the synths layer together tastefully for the first two minutes, but when it does, the result is an uptempo aggro song that stands tall even amongst the best work of the classic artists.

"Flash Memory" might start with chintzy digital synth pads and bitcrushed voices, but soon launches head on into a rapid fire bass line and snappy drums.Paired with the yelled, yet focused vocals it results for a spirited, hardcore punk sensibility to it.Closer "The Deal" also just manages to hit all of the right notes for an album's conclusion.Subtract's call and response style vocals alternating between his flat Eurotrash disconnect and snarling scream as Vand builds up a strong, but slightly melancholy rhythm and melody.By no means is it a down beat song, but manages to channel just the right amount of emotion and energy to make a dramatic, memorable conclusion.

Critical objectivity aside, I simply love this fucking record.My first listen to it gave me twinges of what it was like around 20 years ago, listening to a band for the first time that I purchased blindly due to how I assumed they were going to sound, and being perfectly satisfied.A Unity of Miseries has that nostalgic edge to it, but for the most part it is entirely its own entity in 2014, bringing the best elements of a genre that is dear to me while ignoring all of its limitations.While I do not see myself shelving this album anytime soon, the jump between their demo and this makes me especially anxious to hear what their next evolutionary stage will bring.

samples:

• Rigid Embrace
• Self Management
• The Deal

 

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

Kye is proud to present Much To My Demise, the brand new solo LP by Jason Lescalleet. Since establishing himself as a preeminent voice in contemporary electro-acoustic study, Jason Lescalleet has, through his solo work and in collaboration, exploded the notion of what is possible within the realm of tape-based music. His recorded catalog acknowledges a diversity of application, from lo-fi reel-to-reel soundscaping and work for hand-held cassette machines, on through to digital sampling and computer generated composition. Lescalleet's live actions further expand his ouevre to include work with video, dance, performance art and multi-media concerns.

In recent years Lescalleet's work has done much to explore the theme of loss and decay as sound - Another Example Of Parkinson's Law (2001), "Ineinandergreifen" and "Untitled (from 2002's Mattresslessness) and The Pilgrim (2006) all hold the concept of senescence at heart. Much To My Demise carries the motif of decomposition further still.

Recorded and constructed solely with analog sources, Much To My Demise showcases the result of a three-month process in which pre-recorded reels of tape were transported outdoors, buried in soil and encouraged to corrode. The reels were then excavated, and their resultant signals transferred and edited to form an apparitional triptych of faded gesture and mood.  Much To My Demise shows Lescalleet at a new creative peak, crafting a music that is equal parts comforting and haunting, and allowing us access to secret world of sound hidden in plain sight.

More information can be found here.

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

In many respects, July marks a huge leap forward for Nadler, as she moves from self-releasing her work to joining the very hip and influential Sacred Bones and Bella Union labels while enlisting some impressive and unexpected collaborators along the way in violist Eyvind Kang and Sunn O))) producer Randall Dunn.  Despite those seemingly major changes, however, July still sounds exactly like a Marissa Nadler album and continues her evolution into of the best songwriters around these days.  I am not necessarily sure that it is her best album ever, but it certainly comes very close if it is not.  At the very least, it boasts a couple of the most achingly beautiful songs that I will hear this year.

Sacred Bones (US) / Bella Union (UK)

Marissa does not waste any time in making an impression with this album, as July opens with one of its strongest pieces, "Drive."  There are a lot of wonderful things that I could say about the nuanced arrangements, warm sound, and vocal harmonies, but all of that is secondary to the song itself, as the sad and swooning chorus would probably still probably still sound heartbreaking in a poorly recorded a capella performance. Aside from being a great song, "Drive" also makes the overarching theme of July quite clear: this is most definitely a break-up album.

I suppose practically every Marissa Nadler album sounds like a break-up album, but this one is different.  Rather than wallowing in immediate post-break-up heartbreak, July seems to look back upon old wounds with a wistful mixture of tenderness, wisdom, and hope.  For example, the lines from "Drive" that stick in my mind are not the repeated "you're never coming back," but rather the refrain of "nothing like the way it feels...to drive."  The lingering pain is certainly still evident, but it is not the focus–Nadler proves herself to be uniquely adept at finding the poetry in a wake of broken relationships.

July's other immediately apparent highlights are the swaying, bittersweet "Firecrackers" and the haunting "Was it a Dream?"  Much like "Drive," both boast some absolutely lovely harmonies and unforgettable hooks, particularly the devastating final third of the latter (the final "it's the same world, but everything is new" completely kills me). The charms of "Firecracker" are slightly more subtle, but no less effective, offering up some of Nadler's best and most moving lyrics.  I was especially taken with the line "I know better now, I don't call you up at night 'cause baby you're a ghost and I have changed."

As for the rest of the songs...well, they are all quite good too.  None are as immediately striking as the aforementioned three, but they are certainly all enjoyable in their own ways.  In fact, some of them might even be slow-burning dark horse contenders for my future favorite, as I am constantly stuck by freshly moving turns of phrase almost every time I listen.  To my ears, Nadler does not make a single false or dubious move anywhere on July, avoiding both melodrama and any temptation to dilute her simple, direct songs with overly lush arrangements.  Also, Marissa seems to have mastered the perfect balance between melancholy, brightness, and warmth.  All of that cumulatively amounts to a very listenable, moving, and wonderful album that will be all over this year's "best of" lists come December.

Samples:

• Drive
• Firecrackers
• Was it a Dream?

 

 

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

The third album from Canadian composer Christopher Bissonnette sees him expanding his palette by narrowing his sound sources to a self-built analog synthesizer. Eschewing the whiplash and/or everything including the kitchen sink style of assembly so common among current analog aficionados, Bissonnette instead applies his signature compositional style of using long held tones and sweeping drones that alternate between, and fuse, pure tonal transcendence and patient, sparkling melodies that slowly reveal themselves.

“Essays in Idleness was born from a desire for a more tactile approach to sound generation. With a limited number of sound sources, the process encouraged more focused examination of the available range of choices.

The album is a series of experiments subsequent to a period of deep reflection on my working process. This sequence of tracks is the culmination of two years of intense exploration with the intention of allowing the medium to have a more profound affect on the outcome, the methodology allowing chance, risk and error to play a greater role.

Some of the studies focus on a generative process, allowing the composition to build upon itself, while others are constructed from more complex textures and compositional fragments that shift and modulate organically." -Christopher Bissonnette

Out April 7th, 2014.  More information is available here.

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

Composed and recorded in Los Angeles and San Francisco, I is the debut full-length album by Maxwell August Croy and Sean McCann. Croy is best known for his work in Bay Area duo EN, wherein he processes koto, voice, and other instrumentation into ecstatic and nuanced drone-based recordings. McCann is a solo artist whose work continues to undergo seismic evolutions, manifested most recently on the justly lauded Music for Private Ensemble, an album of autodidactic modern composition that defies easy categorization.

Working as a duo, Croy and McCann have successfully synthesized compositional and aesthetic tropes from their respective discographies in order to produce something extraordinary. “Parting Light (Suite)” opens the album with a flurry of koto, cello, and violin lines masterfully woven together; a complex movement that dissembles to reveal a more spacious environment in which each gesture takes on a heightened significance. Croy’s koto lends the piece an Eastern aura that is complicated by McCann’s playing which is equal parts idiosyncratic and grandiose.

Elsewhere, “Alexandria” finds the duo operating at their most celestial, working their instruments into a harrowing, beautiful dirge comprised of clarion tones and wide-eyed string arrangements. Ultimately, the sensibility cultivated by Croy and McCann on I proves to be utterly unique, perhaps situated best somewhere among the soundworlds of Gavin Bryars, Taj Mahal Travellers and Richard Skelton.

The LP was mastered by Rashad Becker and the jacket features exclusive monotypes by Andrew Chalk.

More information is available here.

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

Klara Lewis' debut release presents an electronically charged reconstruction of organic sound matter. 10 tracks featuring a wide variety of sonic material which is subjected to Lewis' unique approach to the sonic landscape. Field recordings, small sounds, samples, ambient pot holes, repetition, and giddy disorientation are all tactics deployed by Lewis.  On entering these works we take a voyage through a series of audacious audio adventures, playful musical miniatures and choppy sonic seas. There is a human warmth to much of the material as Lewis expertly crafts musical matter from the living world. Ett is an exemplary investigation as Lewis’ reconfigures sounds of life itself, from the delirious to the tender. A bold vision from a bright new talent.

More information is available here.

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

The last time Fennesz released an album on Austrian label Mego, it was 2001 and the name of that release was Endless Summer. Now, in 2014 Editions Mego is extremely proud to release the conceptual follow up that landmark of abstract pop. Bécs (pronounced 'baeetch') is Hungarian for Vienna and is the first full length Fennesz solo release since 2008's Black Sea.

Eschewing the more drone orientated works of Black Sea, Bécs returns to the more florid pop mechanisms as deployed on Endless Summer. "Static Kings" features the extra leverage of Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayer who deploy a range of atmospheric abstract effects to shape a bewitching sound world. The 10-minute centerpiece "Liminality" (featuring Tony Buck on drums) is classic Fennesz: epic, evocative, beautiful, impossible. "Pallas Athene" creates a sanctuary of hovering beauty which leads into the title track. Emotional and assured, the track "Bécs" is an astonishing contribution to contemporary pop. "Sav" co-written by Cédric Stevens (aka Acid Kirk) inhabits a less structural terrain as one enters a forest of small sounds and oblique atmospheres, where the closing "Paroles", a gentle melody unravels amongst swirls of electronics and fried disruption.  Bécs is not just an album or a series of songs, it's a world to inhabit, a landscape ripe with sounds, songs and that esteemed Fennesz signature.

A singular work by a singular artist.

More information is available here.

30 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

My only defense for sleeping on this oft-dazzling album last summer is that nothing makes me wince quite like the word "Moog" these days, as I am sick to death of vintage synthesizer revivalism/fetishism.  That regrettably over-saturated realm is where Gengras shines, however, and several of the pieces on this compilation/retrospective are so great that they easily transcend both their genre and my subjective hostility towards it.  In particular, the 12-minute "Magical Writing" stands as an absolute masterpiece of warm, immersive, and gently hallucinatory drone that should not be missed.

Umor Rex

As alluded to by its title, Collected Works is collection of songs that have previously appeared elsewhere, specifically on four cassette releases spanning a range of labels (Stunned, Ekhein, etc.).  Despite that, it still feels like a completely coherent and effectively sequenced whole, as if Gengras was secretly working on this album all along, but periodically issued dispatches from it as teasers.  In keeping with the unexpectedly well-crafted and satisfying arc of the whole, each of the six individual songs feel like meticulously perfected compositions in their own right, which is a true rarity in such an improv-heavy genre.  Gengras does not exactly avoid the tendency to ride a single theme for the entire duration of a song, but he fleshes out his compositions so skillfully and dynamically that it is not noticeable when he does extendedly linger on just one motif.

Right from the start, Collected Works is attention-grabbingly excellent, as the lush, slow-moving drifts of "10.17.2009" and "Resistor" are warmly, languorously mesmerizing.  The overall effect is like a sky blackened with thick, ominous clouds that never quite block out the sun completely.  The brilliance lies almost entirely in the execution, however, as Gengras is not doing anything particularly new, but he has found the ideal balance of warmth, gravitas, and light.  Also, Geddes is a bit more stylistically varied than most of his peers, as the two brief untitled pieces that follow take the album into more of a melancholy, retro-futurist sci-fi direction with similar success.

The album's centerpiece is the aforementioned epic "Magical Writing," a composition which actually surprised me: I genuinely did not know that something emanating from a Moog could possibly be so wonderful.  In a general sense, it shares a lot stylistic common ground with the warm, glacially moving soundscapes that opened the album, but that is merely the starting point.  The best part is probably the digitized bird sounds in the periphery, as that makes the piece sound like a prolonged, disquieting trip into a hallucinatory forest, but "Writing" is further enhanced and deepened by how gently (and deliciously) warped everything sounds.  Gengras was not just making synth-based ambient drone, he was establishing himself as the Kevin Shields of the Moog, albeit an artfully understated one.

The album winds down with one final piece, the comparatively brief "Inductor," which brings Collected Works to woozily beautiful and slightly sci-fi-damaged close.  It is not nearly as entrancing as the previous "Magical Writing," but that is to be expected, as that is an impossible act to follow.  In any case, "Inductor" makes for a fine coda to one of the most consistently strong and satisfying synth albums that I have ever heard.  The main attraction for Works is certainly "Magical Writing," which I deem to be absolutely essential listening, but it is very difficult to imagine anyone being disappointed by any of the other five pieces.  I hereby belatedly decree that this was one of the best albums of 2013.

• 10.17.2009 (For CCG)
• Resistor
• Magical Writing

 

29 March 2014

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Albums and Singles

Hollywood Dream Trip, Would You Like to Know More?

It was a dark and starry night. Under Texas skies, Christoph Heemann and Will Long (Celer) met and exchanged the first loop that would form the bed for the swirling stream of Hollywood Dream Trip's first trip...

Limpe Fuchs/Christoph Heemann/Timo van Luijk, Macchia Forest

An organic audio forest of analogue electronics, electro-acoustic sounds, sound-sculpture instruments plus singing and piano, even (outrageous!).

"they discover how landscape changes, the forest thickens....new creatures, shapes and colours appear..."

More information can be found here.