02 November 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Netlabel Vulpiano Records is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a cassette tape compilation as a benefit for nonprofit digital library Internet Archive (archive.org).  Limited to 100 copies and featuring exclusive and favorite tracks from the label's international roster of artists from Australia, England, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and the USA.  Each cassette is hand-numbered and comes with either a holographic tarot card (78 copies) or an Artist Trading Card collage on a playing card (22 copies), selected randomly.  The genre-spanning release celebrates the musically diverse and collaborative spirit of the long-running label with selections in drone, folk, electronic, and more.

For a label founded on a Creative Commons ethos, Internet Archive has long been an indispensable host for Vulpiano: a place for our artists' work to be free to download, share, copy and redistribute.

The tape features drone / folk duo Natural Snow Buildings' first track since the 2016 release of Aldebaran: "Charles Thomas Tester". (Cassette exclusive)

Vulpiano Records logo art by Solange Gularte of Natural Snow Buildings.

Album layout and logo edit by Marilyn Roxie.

Playing card collages by Dan Shea and Marilyn Roxie.

More information can be found here.

27 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Michael Gira may have announced that Leaving Meaning would feature Swans continuing in a different form after closing the book on The Glowing Man in 2016. The change has been comparably more subtle than the stylistic shifts of the band throughout their nearly 40 year career, but the progress is distinct. This record draws not only from the recent albums, but also Gira's work with the interim Angels of Light project as well. The album is the perfect blend of the past and the recent, but looks direction to the future as well.

Young God Records

The most significant difference between this album and the recent Swans catalogue is essentially Gira dialing back the intensity both in arrangements and performance.This is abundantly clear on a song such as "Annaline":shimmering accents drift above sparse piano and acoustic guitar, with Gira's vocals front and center.The sound is rather consistent with what he was doing with The Angels of Light in the early part of the 2000s:stripped down folk-y ballads with an experimental undercurrent throughout.On "What is This?," Swans go a bit further, melding those folk elements into an almost 1960s pop number that is brilliant, and somewhat out of character.

The folk sound should not come as a surprise, because many of the band members from Angels of Light are present.The core band here is Kristof Hahn on guitars (a member of Angels of Light as well as recent Swans), drummer Larry Mullins, who played with Angels of Light, and bassist/keyboardist Yoyo Roehm.There are also a significant number of guest appearances, and while this is nothing new for a Swans record, the list is particularly expansive.Most notably is a slew of Angels of Light and Swans collaborators:Thor Harris, Christopher Pravdica, Dana Schechter, Phil Puleo, Paul Wallfisch, and Norman Westberg, who still contributes some guitar.Both Anna and Maria von Hausswolff supply choral vocals, and "The Nub" is a completely different line-up, featuring The Necks and Baby Dee on vocals.

Structure and composition is another point where Leaving Meaning departs from the recent works.For one, a quick scan of the song lengths show that Gira has reined things in a bit compared to The Glowing Man.There are no near-half hour songs here, and the longest ones max out around 12 minutes.This change also impacts the song structures themselves.I likened the other recent albums to a rock take on Hermann Nitsch's compositions:long, extended periods of repetition culminating is pummeling, intense outbursts of sound.

The repetition is still all over this album, but here in the more restrained context it feels more pleasantly hypnotic than tension building.At times it seems like Gira is intentionally toying with expectations of this.The reworking of "Amnesia" from 1992's Love of Life transforms the song from its original vaguely goth rock/industrial sound into an acoustic ballad.There is a symphonic build just before the chorus, but extremely short lived and quickly falls away, never giving the visceral relief it hints at.

At other times, the line between the other recent material is a bit more direct."The Hanging Man" has that oddly funky, blues lurch and mechanical repetition so prominent on The Glowing Man and The Seer, but the intensity held back a bit, even when Gira goes into full "speaking-in-tongues" mode.The same style permeates "Some New Things," which is a hypnotically repeating but conventionally rock sounding piece."Sunfucker" is another song that calls back to the last few albums, but with the von Hausswolff's choral backing vocals and Gira's layered chanting vocal delivery, the feel starts to drift into snake handling religious revival territory.

Given the relatively short time between Michael Gira's announcement of the reconfiguration of Swans and this newest release, it is not surprising that the sound is not too far removed from the sprawling trilogy of the most recent albums (The Seer, To Be Kind, The Glowing Man).The shift may not be as drastic as it was transitioning from Children of God to The Burning World, or Soundtracks for the Blind into My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, but it is clear that Gira does not want to fall into a creative rut.Those recent records were great, but to have stylistically followed the same trend into a fourth double album would have been a bit too much.Leaving Meaning manages to brilliantly retain the sound, but change things around to make it sound familiar, yet entirely new and revitalized and thankfully seems to hint at more to come.

samples:

• The Hanging Man
• Sunfucker
• What is This?

 

27 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin founded Zonal in 2000 and, other than a very limited CDR release, saw the project falling by the wayside, surely impacted by the collapse of Broadrick’s Godflesh a few years later. During this time Martin reconfigured his solo project The Bug into a blown out dancehall/dub/grime project, collaborating with a multitude of different MCs and vocalists. However, the two decided to reactivate Zonal to specifically pick up where Techno Animal left off with 2001’s The Brotherhood of the Bomb. That lineage is clearly heard via the distorted beats and processed synths, and with vocalist Moor Mother joining them for the first half, it culminates into a brilliant and fresh, yet familiar sound that stands strong with any of the duo’s previous collaborations.

Relapse

Guest appearances between the two aside, such as on The Bug’s Angels & Devils record, Broadrick and Martin did not collaborate at all during this post-Godflesh era, which was surprising given the number of projects they had together in the past:Techno Animal, Ice, Curse of the Golden Vampire, God, the Sidewinder, and Sub Species.It never seemed as if this was due to any bad blood between the two, simply that each of them busy with their own projects.So when it was announced that Zonal would be recording as the modern resurgence of Techno Animal, I was rather excited.

Techno Animal’s Re-Entry was a hugely impactful record for me.Starting from Godflesh early in high school, I navigated my way through as many Broadrick related projects as I could find in those pre/early days of the internet.Re-Entry was an important one, because it opened my eyes to how diverse and varied electronic music could be, beyond the Industrial/EBM stuff I had mostly been listening to and the dance music I did not care much about.The combination of styles and dense, unconventional production just clicked with me perfectly, and I still rank it among my favorite records nearly 25 years after its release.

Like most of the Techno Animal work that succeeded it, Wrecked is rather different.It retains the idiosyncratic production, but the density and distortion that was so prevalent on latter day Techno Animal is used more sparingly.The first half spotlights Moor Mother’s contributions, with Martin and Broadrick stepping back as producers.The full range of their styles is apparent here, with opening song "Body of Wire," featuring Moor Mother’s delivery more in spoken-word form, as the two construct expansive, ambient space in the background.Both vocals and music have equal billing, as a true collaboration should.

For both "In a Cage" and "System Error," that old TA feel is apparent immediately.The crunchy, snappy beats and grinding synths make it clear the duo have not missed a step.The former has a less structured and more experimental structure overall, while the latter is a bit denser and almost, at least in construction, along the lines of more conventional hip-hop.Throughout both Moor Mother’s vocals are exceptionally strong, effortlessly sliding from spoken word, passages of singing, rapping, and even a bit of reggae toasting."Catalyst" has a slow, open sound that feels nicely aquatic, like a nod back to their collaborations with Porter Ricks.As rich and diverse as the music is, Moor Mother’s combined sung/rapped vocals of gender politics and intersectionality are never overshadowed.

Overall, the second half of the record does not differ drastically even though it consists exclusively of instrumentals, with the most significant difference being more frequent shifts in structure that would have otherwise been overshadowed by vocals.The title piece builds strongly from a filtered crunch and what sounds like a broken drum machine keeping the beat."Debris" leads of with alien static and haunting tones that lurk below a slowly paced, but metallic tinged rhythms.The pacing and production makes me think dub, but the final product is quite far removed from the expectations of that label.

Just as on the first half, one of Zonal’s greatest strengths is that, even amidst all of the distortion, effects, and processing, they construct very catchy, memorable songs that subtly develop as they go on."Black Hole Orbit" is a thick mass of buzzing synths, filtered rhythms, and heavily treated electronics that nod back to latter day TA.However, even with all of these messy elements it is an extremely catchy bit of music that shows the songwriting that actually goes on here.The noise and distortion is right up front on "S.O.S." and the multiple layers quickly stack up into one of the most grimy, dense compositions on here.However, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a pleasant, lush melodic undercurrent buried under all of the dirt, which makes for a perfect counterpoint.

Considering the fluid nature of the Techno Animal project since its inception, from the industrial pummel of Ghosts to the dual hip-hop and ambient sounds of Re-Entry, the techno heavy Babylon Seeker, and then the progressively noisier beats that followed, I had no worry that they were simply going to tread old ground.Which is something they certainly do not do on Wrecked.The extremely varied talents of Moor Mother’s vocals make for a strong, unique first half, and their perfect synergy as far as composition goes stands out perfectly throughout the entire record.For something as I was as hyped to check out as Wrecked, the final product was something even better than I had hoped.

Samples Available Here.

27 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

As you lay on your back in the deep grass on a shadowy late-summer afternoon…tracing the outlines of patterns on the inside of your eyelids illuminated in translucense beneath the sun….ruminating, drifting in and out of sleep. Your dreams flirt with the irrational fears of the dark, of being left alone, of infinity…of being lost in corn fields reaching taller than the sky, of the comfort of feet dangling in a cold lake and splinters from running on a sun-dried summer dock. The world once felt new and alive…now through a haze, lost from the opacity of time.

Ohio is a new project from of 12k founder Taylor Deupree and long-time label-mate and collaborator Corey Fuller. The genesis of Ohio, besides the desire to work on a full album together, was them realizing they were both born in the US state of Ohio, not far from each other, and spent their earlier years crafting young memories there before moving away. This ended up being a simple, but interesting point of departure for the project because these early, hazy memories provided compelling conceptual roadmaps for the album as well as become inspiration for the song titles.

With no lack of irony the project started with a playful cover of singer/songwriter Damien Jurado's "Ohio." Deeply loved by both Deupree and Fuller, covering this song liberated them from working in their traditional "ambient" comfort-zone, challenging them with new structures and new directions. Their version of "Ohio" slowed the song down and explored acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, harmonies, pop-centric song structure, field recordings and a plethora of subtle studio fun (the looped clicking motor of a Roland RE-201 Space Echo being used as a "hi-hat" of sorts) and layers.

The project expanded from there and moved gradually as they very much felt working in the same physical space was important to its core. Writing, overdubbing, mixing and editing continued as the two found time to make the journeys between Tokyo and New York to share a studio. Each visit the songs would become more refined and be pushed into new and unexpected directions. A cathartic intensity found its way into the music echoing the intensity of life but at the same time remaining grounded.

The four years spent creating Upward, Broken, Always resulted in an album that engages the dichotomy between ambience and intensity. The hazy reworking of Jurado's "Ohio," or the duet for acoustic guitars recorded in the woods outside of Deupree's studio contrasts with the surprising, beautifully intense swells of overdriven guitar. Faraway drums and Fuller's ghostly vocals further expand the sonic image.

During one of their final editing sessions, with the accidental muting of musical tracks, the interludes at the end of each LP side were born. Fragments of preceding songs, stripped to a ghostly minimum like those distant Ohio memories.

Upward, Broken, Always is released in online formats and as a limited edition of 125 double 12” LPs. The LP art features an aerial photograph of the state of Ohio as well as the barn from Deupree's childhood home inside the gatefold jacket. There are 3 sides of audio on the release with Side D of the 2nd record being a full-side graphical etching of a topographical map.

More information can be found here.

27 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

This Swedish composer earned a lot of attention with last year's blackened drone opus Kontrapoetik, but Horn has been a significant figure in European underground music circles for quite a while (she co-runs the XKatedral label with Kali Malone, for example). On her latest album, however, she seamlessly slips into somewhat different stylistic territory than I expected, as Epistasis is shaped by some very intriguing and inventive compositional techniques (one of which draws its inspiration from Arvo Pärt). And much like Pärt (and Malone), Horn has found a unique way to use traditional classical instrumentation that does not bear much resemblance to the current classical/neo-classical milieu at all. There are still some lingering shades of Horn's darker, heavy influences to be found as well, but the most striking creative breakthrough on the album comes in the form of the tender, twinkling, and intricately arranged two-part piano suite "Interlocked Cycles."

Hallow Ground

The heart of Epistasis, "Interlocked Cycles," was originally composed for a larger audiovisual work that premiered last year at Stockholm's Royal College of Music.Sadly, I have not yet figured out a way to sync up the lights in my apartment to recreate the full multisensory experience of that night, but the music is nevertheless quite beautiful in decontextualized form.Curiously, the two halves of the piece are the album's bookends, so they are presumably intended as discrete entities.They were composed using roughly the same ideas though: Horn used a computer-controlled piano to achieve a steady escalation of both tempo and density.There is also some phase manipulation involved.In more practical terms, the opening "Interlocked Cycles I" resembles an ingenious, large-scale music box: it opens quite simply with a lone, somber arpeggio, yet steadily becomes warmer, brighter, and more lovely as more moving parts are triggered and lock into place.By the end, it is a complex lattice of intertwined, rippling melodies and it is absolutely heavenly, though subterranean drones and eerily whining electronics provide enough unease to ensure that a subtly haunted mood still gnaws at the fringes of the idyll.That same structural arc repeats for the closing "Interlocked Cycles II," but it takes a considerably different shape, as there is a steadily intensifying sense of drama and grandeur in the underlying chord progression.While it is not quite as strong as its predecessor on the whole, the final moments achieve a mesmerizing level of quiet intensity after the chords fall away.I also appreciated the added textural flourish of rattling, muted notes (presumably from piano strings covered with foil or something similar).

The two pieces in the middle of the album take divergent paths of their own.On "Epistasis," for example, Horn replicates the roiling grandeur of black metal with a double string quartet and some overdubbed guitar noise.It is quite a sweeping and cinematic piece that evokes sinister castles on windswept crags, which normally tends to be the sort of thing that does not appeal to me very much.To her credit, however, Horn almost wins me over to her brand of orchestral doom with the occasional curdled note and an undercurrent of more nuanced emotions.Thankfully, the following "Konvektion" resonates with me on a much deeper level, recalling the sublime organ minimalism of Horn's longtime collaborator Kali Malone.Horn differs significantly from Malone in her approach, however, as she works her harmonic magic out in the open and seems far more amenable to lushness and layering.The two artists are very similar in their compositional inventiveness and rigor though.Case in point: "Konvektion" was written for two organists (sharing an instrument) using Arvo Pärt's "tintinnabuli" approach, but with the twist that the chord durations are dictated by the breathing patterns of each individual performer.In Horn's hands, tintinnabular music is less fragile and melodic than it is in classic Pärt fare like "Spiegel im Spiegel," yet "Konvektion" achieves something similarly appealing with its enhanced harmonic depth and languorously organic arc.

With Epistasis following on the heels of Malone's excellent The Sacrificial Code, this is shaping up to be quite an impressive year for Stockholm's experimental music scene and I am now very curious about what the rest of duo's regular collaborators have in the pipeline (Malone and Horn are part of a quartet that also includes Ellen Arkbro and Marta Forsberg).In the hyperconnected cultural landscape of the internet age, it is truly rare for a regional scene to blossom with its own distinct character, yet something quietly radical and exciting has unquestionably taken shape from such an improbably smart and idiosyncratic bunch of artists all playing together and exchanging unconventional ideas.I cannot think of any other milieu that an album like this could have emerged from.With Epistasis, Horn has made the impressive leap from "fine drone artist with some cool conceptual ideas" to "formidable composer that other artists will absolutely try to emulate."This album's success goes deeper than just great ideas and skillful execution though, as Horn has found a near-perfect balance between the soulful and the cerebral and applied it to classical instrumentation in a way that is appealingly melodic, timeless, and distinctive.I am properly floored by the rapid and wonderful evolution that Horn's work has undergone since just last year: Kontrapoetik was a strong album, but this one is on an entirely different plane altogether.

Samples can be found here.

27 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Randall Taylor has quietly emerged as one of the most talented and distinctive tape loop artists in the world over the last few years, steadily releasing a prolific flow of cassettes on a variety of labels. Remarkably, however, Between Distant and Remote is his first vinyl release, which I suppose makes this an auspicious occasion career-wise. It is also the first time I have personally delved seriously into his oeuvre despite my general predisposition towards warbly loops and obsessive repetition. I suspect the reason Amulets has eluded me until now is that Taylor uses tapes as a compositional tool to craft warm, dreamlike reveries of processed guitar ambiance rather than making the tapes the focus. Of course, the tapes very clearly are the focus in Taylor's process, but the finished compositions that ultimately emerge could easily be mistaken for the work of an ambient-minded guitarist with a passion for lush layering. If Taylor were a lesser artist, that approach would disappoint me, but Between Distant and Remote scratches a similar itch to classic shoegaze-damaged drone artists like Belong (and it gets there in an impressively inventive way).

Beacon Sound

The opening "Process of Unlearning" is quite a beautiful and effective statement of intent, as it begins with a loop of an enigmatic squelching noise and slowly builds into a roiling sea of lovely soft-focus guitar noise.Plenty of other artists do guitar-based ambient drone quite well, yet Taylor shows a strong intuition for finding interesting and effective ways to make his work stand out as particularly distinctive.I am especially fond of the wobbly, stuttering tape sounds that become the heart of the piece, yet the more impressive mastery lies in the piece's thoughtful, subtle, and effective dynamic arc.To his credit, Taylor was not content to simply craft a pretty swirl of shimmering and quivering guitars, as an undercurrent of distorted, sizzling chords steadily drives the piece towards something that feels genuinely epic by the end of its four-minute duration.I cannot think of any other artists working in similar stylistic territory that share Taylor's knack for constant forward motion and endless subtle shifts in emotional shading, as there is a definite tendency in the genre to linger in a state of floating or submerged bliss.The latter unquestionably has its appeal, but it is refreshing to encounter such a lull-free addition to the canon.Moreover, that sense of unwavering purposefulness brings me to the most curious aspect of Amulets: Taylor essentially uses tape loops to make himself a one-man rock band and he does it very well.He also uses his tapes to give his sounds a warbling and frayed texture that I very much enjoy, but I am struck by how modestly he employs his arsenal of walkmen: almost every loop is designed to seamlessly blend into the quivering haze rather than assert itself.It feels like Taylor just wanted to make languorously lovely multilayered guitar music that he could play live and the tapes are merely the ingenious way he found to make that work.

While the whole album is quite good, I most prefer the pieces where Taylor balances dreamlike beauty with ragged edges and gnarled textures.In that regard, "North Coast, Falling" steals the show, as its lazily rippling arpeggios are embellished with a stammering and dissolving melodic loop that feels simultaneously grinding and strangled.And then a snarling and sputtering tide of guitar noise slowly rises up and threatens to consume everything.In less assured hands than Taylor's, that is exactly what would have happened, but the noise ultimately dissipates to make way for a tender and lovely coda.Elsewhere, "Where The Land Meets the Sea" casts a delicately lovely spell with a woozy two-note pulse and a chiming, music box-esque melody before erupting into a seismic crescendo of dense and sizzling power chords.The following "No Signal," on the other hand, largely eschews Amulets' usual beauty in favor of something that sounds like a howling and mournful guitar catharsis accompanied by roiling static and ringing buoys.It is quite a quietly incendiary piece, displaying a passion and rawness that I would not normally associate with either tape loops or guitar-based ambient.Remarkably, that hot streak lasts right up until the end of the album and each piece manages to have its own distinct character.In "Feigning Night," for example, exhalation-like washes of tape hiss and backwards melodies gradually blossom into a densely shuddering mass of layered guitars, rumbling bass drones, and distantly twinkling piano motifs.Later, the closing "Like Warm Air (We Rose)" feels like I just unexpectedly tuned into an angelic radio station as the earth shakes and burns around me.

As I listen to Between Distant and Remote more and more, I keep finding new details and nuances to love, so I am hard-pressed to find much to gripe about: there are seven songs on this album and every single one is wonderful in its own way.That said, I do wish Taylor had used non-musical loops a bit more frequently and prominently than he does, as some buried voices and environmental sounds would have made the album a more mysterious and complex experience.That is not exactly a shortcoming though–merely an observation about how a great album might have become a somewhat greater one.Truly iconic artists do not just make music that sounds good–they have something extra that gives their work an instantly recognizable personality and soul.For example, Ian William Craig works in similar stylistic terrain, but transcends other artists because his voice brings a human tenderness and vulnerability into his soundscapes.Taylor, for his part, transcends other artists through sheer craftsmanship and unerring songcraft instincts alone.For someone working in the experimental music milieu (and with tape loops, no less), he has a truly exceptional knack for hooks, concision, and textural dynamics.While it admittedly took me a few listens to fully appreciate the depth and vividness of the Amulets vision and see Taylor as a uniquely talented loop wizard rather than an unusually good ambient/drone artist, I got there eventually and can now fully appreciate Between Distant and Remote as the understated masterpiece that it is.This is one of the year's finest albums.

Samples can be found here.

26 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

A 10-cassette anthology housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring:

Kleistwahr
Neutral
Pinkcourtesyphone
Alice Kemp
She Spread Sorrow
G*Park
Relay For Death
Francisco Meirino
Fossil Aerosol Mining Project
Himukalt

The collection stands as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, plunging through the depths of post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, and existential vacancy.

Curation and fabrication by Jim Haynes
Audio mastering by James Plotkin
Liner notes by Drew Daniel, Emily Pothast, Jim Haynes, and Donna Stonecipher

Release date: November 22, 2019

More information can be found here.

20 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Earlier this year, Maurizio and Roberto Opalio debuted an ambitious new phase of their long-running My Cat is an Alien project with Spiritual Noise. Vol. I. Appropriately, this sequel is a continuation of that vein, but there is no such thing as a predictable linear progression in the Opalios' universe: each fresh album is like a veil being pulled back to reveal an otherworldly and deeply hallucinatory vista quite unlike anything anyone else has ever recorded. In fact, this project calls to mind a lonely satellite that just keeps drifting deeper and deeper beyond our solar system, sporadically sending back increasingly haunted and alien images that have no earthly analog. Naturally, music this unapologetically outré is an acquired taste that can challenge even the most adventurous ears, as there are no recognizable reference points or even nods to Earth-bound modality, but the closing "Silver Glimpses of Infinity" is the closest that the duo have come to comparative accessibility in years…probably. It is equally likely that listening to so many MCIAA albums has irrevocably rewired my brain at this point and I am now fully desensitized to the more queasy and reality-dissolving elements of their aesthetic. Either way, it is still quite an amazing piece.

Antigravitational

As is established tradition, this latest installment of Spiritual Noise documents a series of "instantaneous compositions" performed at the Opalios' studio in the Alps.If My Cat is an Alien were a more conventional project, I would translate that as "improvisations," but "channelings" feels far more apt in this case.I do not get the sense that the two brothers are consciously playing off of each other's contributions (no one would mistake this for jazz), yet there is an uncanny sense that Maurizio and Roberto achieved some kind of shared trance state and that their actions were unconsciously in harmony because they tapped into the same cosmic vibrations or ur-mind.I suppose that is quite an accurate summation of the duo's appeal in general, as each of their albums is essentially a dispatch from an altered state that only the Opalios have managed to achieve and the sheer otherness of it can be absolutely mesmerizing.The shape, scope, and emotional contours of that hallucinatory landscape can vary quite a bit from album to album, however, even though the Opalios' palette consists largely of just Roberto’s bleary and disorienting cooing, some space toys, and a small arsenal of homemade or repurposed gear.With this album, the driving force is an uncharacteristically rhythmic one, as Roberto plays a "modified analog drum machine."In fact, the art edition of the album includes a bonus track that is essentially a clicking, popping, and phase-shifting rhythm experiment that feels like a weirdly hypnotic and infinite vinyl run-off groove.

The three pieces from the regular album have a similarly clattering and rickety backdrop, but they are vibrantly fleshed out with Roberto's unsettling vocal haze, buzzing electronics, and a disorienting host of lysergic effects.Maurizio is credited with playing a "self-made double-bodied string instrument" as well, though I am hard-pressed to tell which sounds are coming from that and which ones originate from the duo's electronics.Of course, trying to figure out where each individual sound comes from is generally a fool's game with My Cat is an Alien, as everything swirls together into a smeared, twinkling, and uneasily dissonant miasma by design.Each of these three pieces actually feels like a variation of the same mind-warping, cosmic miasma, in fact, but each one is an ingenious deconstruction akin to heavy outsider dub.

The central motif in each case can be best summarized as a buzzing bass throb slowly moving through a supernatural fog of eerie vocals and queasy sustained tones that evoke glimmering, malevolent stars.The opening "Rage and Beatitude of Pain" is the most visceral of the three incarnations, as its phantasmagoric reverie is enhanced with distorted bass tones, roiling swells of tape hiss, and reverberant metallic clangs.The lengthier "As Meteors Before Disintegration" then strips away all of the bottom end and sharp edges to leave only a sustained floating nightmare of dissonant harmonies.The final piece, "Silver Glimpse of Infinity," lies somewhere between those two divergent poles, slowly converging into a slow-motion rhythm of corroded, stuttering bass thrum and a looping melodic fragment of electronic buzzes.It is quite a wonderfully hypnotic and slow-burning piece and the Opalios make the most out of its potential by enhancing it with a host of gibbering and fluttering sounds that resemble field recordings from an extra-dimensional jungle.

While the sheer otherness and boundless imagination of MCIAA's vision is the primary draw, there is a second (and arguably more substantial) appeal in the immersive, reality-distorting vividness of the spell that the Opalios cast with that vision. As such, there is an endless push and pull between focusing/distilling their deep space lysergia for maximum impact versus expanding it into an epic mind-melting plunge into sustained sensory saturation.Both sides can be wonderful, but I am especially fond of the latter, as experiencing an album like Psycho-System feels akin to stumbling out of a sweat lodge after experiencing a divine revelation.As a result, the Opalios' recent run of shorter albums tend to leave me wanting more, but they offer a different kind of pleasure that does not consume a significant chunk of my day.Which, of course, means that albums like Spiritual Noise, Vol. II are considerably better-suited for repeat listening than their more sprawling predecessors (and presumably much less intimidating for the unindoctrinated as well).In that regard, this installment of Spiritual Noise makes a fine addition to the Opalios' current hot streak and adds one more stone-cold classic to their oeuvre in the form of "Silver Glimpse of infinity."

Samples can be found here.

20 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Compared to the first release I heard from Australian composer Todd Anderson-Kunert, Conjectures is a significantly different piece of work. A Good Time to Go, from 2018, was an excellent tape of that drew from all different forms of abstract electronic sound art, from elements of rhythm and heavily processed sounds to more conventional synthesizer expanses. For Conjectures, he takes a more reductive approach. Using only the massive Moog System 55 modular synthesizer, the result is a very focused, yet dynamic work that showcases both the instrument and the artist.

Room40

As a fan of electronic music in general, I will admit I have some questionable feelings about modular synthesis.It is a fascinating technology that shows the extent of what hardware can do, and in a way very different than laptop DSP software.In the wrong hands it sounds like an unfocused mess of blips and squeaks that are less about any sort of artistry and more a showcase of how many esoteric modules a person can buy.Conjectures, however, demonstrates none of that.

Instead, Anderson-Kunert’s work is sparse, but in a deliberate manner.Focusing on using the one complex beast of an instrument, he coaxes out the variety of sounds it is capable of in two slow building, side-long pieces of introspective sound."I See What You Mean" first features clean, heavy low frequency tones that vibrate whatever speakers being used quite nicely.To this he adds a tasteful amount of white-noise tinged buzz to contrast the smooth with the rougher and uglier sounds.

The piece develops at a deliberate, but distinguishable pace.Electronic pulsations increase the sense of movement, balancing out the slow creep of the heavy tones.New elements are introduced, such as electric-like crackles and passages of what sounds like radio interference.By the end, however, he has carefully weaved in gentle melodic elements that, even with the occasional errant buzz, make for a rather beautiful conclusion to the first side of the record.

Everything takes on a darker sheen on "It Feels Right," however.From the onset the synthesizer takes on a bleaker timbre:a heavy rumble that is out of focus just enough to be menacing.Some lighter, shimmering layers of synth seep in akin to the occasional sunbeam briefly penetrating the dark sky, but the sound stays rooted in murkier spaces.There is a prominent cyclic structure and sense of repetition throughout, keeping things grounded, never becoming self-indulgent, and staying nicely diverse.Melody appears once again, but in a grimmer, funereal context, before Anderson-Kunert ends the piece with the sort of sub bass that opened the record.

The combination of Todd Anderson-Kunert's ear for structure and mixing, with the specific focus on one synth and none of the modular masturbation, results in Conjectures being a beautifully nuanced, amazing work.I imagine the multitude of knobs and patch bays on the Moog he used may have been tempting to go a bit wild with, but that is anything but the case.The level of attention he pays to the individual tones and sounds carries over quite well, and being able to focus my attention on all the fine details made for an excellent pair of compositions.

Samples Available Here.

20 October 2019

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Following up the limited 2015 release of her solo debut Surfacing, Faith Coloccia’s (also of Mamiffer) latest work is in some ways a continuation of that, but also something new entirely. With recordings dating back to 2015, Here Behold Your Own captures not only an artist, but a person in transition: the material was recorded before and mixed after Coloccia gave birth to a son with her Mamiffer/SIGE partner Aaron Turner. Like revisiting a photo album from many years past, she creates a perfectly somber, yet pleasurably nostalgic mood.

SIGE

The two halves of the record delineate two distinct works, each broken into multiple parts.While they certainly compliment one another, "A New Young Birth" is the warmer one, with more distinct instrumentation and Coloccia's gentle vocals, many of which are based on lullabies she was singing to her son at the time.The other half, "Sangre de Cristo," emphasizes the more abstract elements of her work, heavily steeped in analog effects and treatment.The entirety of the record, however, is steeped in a warm, enveloping sense of time’s past via the production that casts everything in a layer of distortion akin to old, time worn cassette recordings.

Right from the first segment of "A New Young Birth" the overall mood and sound is established.Her piano work is prominent but it is filtered through a heavy layer of analog distortion and tape decay, perfectly capturing the sense of revisiting old memories and experiences.The second segment carries over much of the same sound, but shifts the focus from piano to Coloccia's gentle vocals that, combined with the processing, make for an extremely soothing and inviting piece of music.

This pattern repeats with the fourth segment, where her vocals appear largely unaccompanied other than the treatment and effects.Organ melodies are at the forefront of the third section, and while distinct and melodic, share the focus a bit more with heavier distortion and effects.The same holds true for the sixth section, which is overall a bit cleaner in production.The first half has a distinctly rich, lush flow to it, but there is a shift to heavier, more grinding sounds in the latter moments.

The second side, "Sangre de Cristo," has amped up noise and distortion elements that were somewhat more prominent in the first half, but Coloccia gives them the focus.The second section, for example, is almost all hissy tape noise and rotting crunch.It may not be harsh in the conventional sense, but it sounds as if it was constructed solely using the sounds of tape decay.The fifth section features her throwing in a bit of what sounds like standard feedback or pedal distortion within the analog haze.Here there are more melodic elements buried deep in the noise, and slowly these rise to the surface to take center stage.

On the fourth segment it even sounds as if she brings in some bass or guitar, meticulously distorted, to stand out within the heavier bass sound, giving the piece an entirely different feeling.However, some of the calmer elements from the other side seep in, such as the prominent piano on the third section, and the closing part again showcases her lullaby like vocals that are eventually subsumed by the decaying analog production, ending the album on an excellent approximation of the sound of a cassette being played for the final time.

As an album that is capturing a turning point in her life, the dynamic between fondness and melancholy works extremely well, because it truly does feel like revisiting old memories, both happy and sad, with the awareness that those feelings will never be experienced again.With that perfect ending note of decaying cassette distortion, it makes for a perfect encapsulation of the mood she set out to create.

Samples Available Here.