Cyclic Defrost

Snog – Everything Is Under Control (Metropolis)

2013-05-21T12:16:32Z

I had to do a quick double-take upon listening to this latest six track download-only EP from Snog, as I was suddenly hit by the realisation that David Thrussell and his band of fellow pranksters must have recently celebrated their twentieth birthday, or at least must soon be about to. If anything, ‘Everything Is Under Control’, the first taste of Snog’s upcoming album ‘Babes In Consumerland’ highlights the satirical pop heart that’s always been present at the centre of the collective’s politically barbed approach. As the title suggests, ‘Everything Is Under Control’ lyrically targets the populace “mesmerised, brutalised into silence” by the numbing mass media, with Thrussell dropping most of the obvious processing from his vocal against a stripped-down backing of Glitter Band-esque drum machine beats, twinkling synth riffs and icy pads.

For the most part, the four remixes on offer here adhere fairly closely to the stripped-down 4/4 electro template. Midnight Juggernauts member Spiderface offers up an extended ambient-dub intro on his reworking that sends eerie washes of sound rolling against dripping water textures before things suddenly resolve themselves around a tight 4/4 kickdrum pulse and a poppy backdrop of jittery electro synths. Elsewhere, Sir Real gets deeper and techier with his remix, sending graceful retro-house piano keys rippling against murmuring synthetic bass and pulsing, subtle rhythms, but the most intriguing moment on this EP arrives with instrumental non-album track ‘Lament Of The Lost Sheep’, which takes thing into a nightmarish landscape of orchestration and tolling church bells worthy of the most dystopian sci-fi film, only for things to fade out with the distant sound of baa-ing sheep. Characteristically dark and funny in equal doses, ‘Everything Is Under Control’ should keep the Snog fanbase more than satisfied.

Snog – Everything Is Under Control (Metropolis) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Miguel Baptista Benedict – Super(b)-Child-Ran (Brainfeeder)

2013-05-19T12:55:42Z

Twenty five year old Los-Angeles-based producer / multi-instrumentalist Miguel Baptista Benedict apparently spent the years spanning 2008-2012 self-producing no less than 25 albums. After initially sending a couple of his tracks to Flying Lotus on a whim back in 2008, this debut album on Brainfeeder ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ sees Benedict and FlyLo collecting together ten tracks from six of his completed albums. It’s certainly not easy to categorise what Benedict is doing here, with gentle guitar-led passages suddenly leading into jarring walls of processed vocals and distorted electronics, and indeed the fact that these ten tracks were drawn from disparate albums often leads to some fairly abrupt transitions. Opening track ‘Phemy’ lures the listener in gently at first as delicate piano melodies weave a melancholic intro to ‘Subordinate CEO’s glittering collision of psychedelic flute textures and chiming guitars, the distorted horns building towards a Sun-Ra-esque crescendo as wordless backing vocals rise up against the sparse drumming.

From there on though, things start getting considerably more spiky and unpredictable, with ‘Oil Free Acne Scrub’ unleashing some curiously post-hardcore guitar and drum atmospheres that suddenly crash into a mass of squalling electronic-processing and the kind of brutal, shearing power noise you’d expect from the likes of Wolf Eyes as frigid bursts of DSP-ed noise take things out into icy isolationist territory. Elsewhere, ‘Blink 192′ manages to chart similarly jarring and abrasive territory as arrhythmic drum machines kick and sputter against sudden bursts of rewound cassette noise and buzzing bass synths, the entire track finally reaching its seemingly inevitable breakdown amidst a shearing wall of digital timestretching. There are certainly plenty of undeniably brilliant moments on show here, but taken in its entirety, ‘Super(b)-Child-Ran’ makes for a somewhat difficult and often jarring listen.

Miguel Baptista Benedict – Super(b)-Child-Ran (Brainfeeder) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Djrum – Seven Lies (2nd Drop)

2013-05-13T10:52:38Z

One of the founders behind the seminal Yardcore club night, London-based electronic producer Felix Manuel first made his transition from DJing to production with a couple of 12”s as Djrum on Smoking Sessions and On The Edge during 2010, and three years on ‘Seven Lies’ offers up his debut album. Reflecting Manuel’s own DJ background in dubstep, techno, broken-beat house and hiphop, it’s certainly an extremely diverse collection, with perhaps the biggest aesthetic quality linking all of the nine tracks here being a sense of widescreen, almost cinematic depth. ‘Obsession’ kicks proceedings off softly at first as bright pulsing synths and sub-bass ripples slowly gather pace amidst majestic orchestral flourishes, only for things to suddenly lock down into the sort of broken tech-house groove you’d associate with the likes of Martyn or 2562 as dubbed-out vocal samples stretch out over distantly growling sub-bass.

By contrast, ‘Como Los Serdes’ plays the opposite side of the equation, dropping things into a downbeat dub-hiphop groove that’s part DJ Premier, part Kruder & Dorfmeister as handclaps snap beneath angelic treated vocals and faded sounding jazz horns, before ‘DAM’ spends nine minutes shifting from a similarly blissed-out soul / hiphop opening section into lithe tech-house that beautifully plays hard-edged, snapping snare action off against a backdrop of gorgeously smeared out piano tones and female vocal fragments. Elsewhere, ‘Lies’ sees the sound of rain and rippling harp flourishes seguing into a Burial-esque off-centre house groove as brooding orchestral chords and eerie female vocals combine with rippling sub-bass pressure to usher in what’s easily this album’s spookiest moment. Definitely one of the finest techno / broken-house related releases I’ve had the pleasure of hearing so far this year.

Djrum – Seven Lies (2nd Drop) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

“Space is the Place” – Extended Playlist 281111 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM

2013-05-13T10:46:10Z

As a gentle segue this week from the jazz show that precedes us, Extended Play kicks off with one of our all-time classic Frigid tracks, Nobu from Herbie Hancock’s electric “Dedication” album from 1974. We’re also featuring Australian new sounds courtesy of Hydatid and Pimmon, plus solo work from UK band Wire’s members Colin Newman (with wife Malka Spigel, as drone outfit Immersion) and Bruce Gilbert. Space is the place – expansive.

——————————
# -> Australian artist or release
——————————

Herbie Hancock – Nobu
(“Jazz Satellites, Vol. 1: Electrification” 2xCD compilation – 1996, Virgin) (original 1974)

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Exhibition
(“Fieldwork/Steppin’ Into Asia” – 1987, Midi) (original 1985)

Hydatid – That Breakthrough Moment
(“Pre Utopian” – 2011, self-released) #

Filewile – Lunch
(“Nassau Massage” – 2007, Mouthwatering)

Animal Collective – Bluish
(“Merriweather Post Pavilion” – 2009, Domino)

Meat Beat Manifesto – Paradise Found
(“Mindstream” single – 1993, Play It Again Sam)

Throbbing Gristle – Heathen Earth 5
(“Heathen Earth: The Live Sound Of T.G.” – 1991, Industrial/Mute) (original 1980)

Bruce Gilbert – Angel Food
(“This Way To The Shivering Man” – 1987, Mute)

Immersion – Homage To Water
(“Low Impact” – 1999, Swim)

Pimmon – Passing, Never To Be Held
(“The Oansome Orbit” – 2011, Room 40) #

Neotropic – Je suis
(“La prochaine fois” – 2001, Ntone)

Other People’s Children – Mood Music
(“Transatlantic” 7inch – 2000, Library Music) #

Felix Kubin – The Rhythm Modulator Cont’d
(“The Wire Tapper 21” compilation – 2009, Wire Magazine)

Front 242 – Geography I
(“Geography” – 1982, Himalaya)

Eyeless in Gaza – Half-Light
(“Caught In Flux” – 1981, Cherry Red)

——————————
# -> Australian artist or release
——————————

“Space is the Place” – Extended Playlist 281111 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Various Artists – Heliosphere: Compilation #5 (Uncomfortable Beats)

2013-05-20T02:01:52Z

Uncomfortable Beats – if you’re not already aware – is a small Melbourne label, specialising in niche urban sounds and communal gatherings of local DJs. Heliosphere is the label’s fifth release as a record label, and they now unveil a new platter of talented Australian producers.

This release differs from the previous four compilations in being focused on a more loungey atmosphere, but retains the UK garage and hip-hop sound and soul as the previous compilations. Warmth radiates from Heliosphere, and one track flows seamlessly to another. There isn’t one mediocre track on this release and this is a perfect album to leave playing free on a lazy day.

Artists I wasn’t previously familiar with that stood out for me personally were Sailax, Skomes and Syncretia. Sailax’s ‘Ascend’ delves deep and is executed impeccably. Skomes’ ‘Suufi’ is a dirge of awesome drum hits over middle eastern sampling, done in proper DJ Krush hip-hop instrumental fashion. Syncretia’s ‘All Too Human’ creates a moogy atmosphere that is inscrutable and sums up the overall theme of Heliosphere.

Ghostsoul and Aneurythm also display their signature sounds that are really coming into their own, and represents them as that rare breed of truly authentic producers. Ghostsoul’s simplistic no-frills trip-hop ambiance in ‘A Million Broken Ideas’ is one of those tracks that truly sticks as unique, whilst Aneurythm’s rolling drum loops over broken and discordant keys in ‘Blankets’ is fresh and inimitable.

The overall focus of Heliosphere is more honed than their previous releases and this unique Australian label is showing they are maturing at a rapid rate.

Tracklist

1. Willhem – Poets
2. Sailax – Ascend
3. Durban Poison – Mind Games Part II
4. DTS – Human Essence
5. Able8 – Gumboots
6. Senator J1m – Nearness
7. Busty St Claire – Forked
8. Aneurythm – Blanket
9. Skomes – Suufi
10. Ruffles – Fluent
11. Ghostsoul – A Million Broken Ideas
12. Johnny Faith – Rain Came Down
13. Syncretia – All Too Human

Link: http://www.beatport.com/release/compilation-5-heliosphere/1078175

Various Artists – Heliosphere: Compilation #5 (Uncomfortable Beats) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Erika – Hexagon Cloud (Interdimensional Transmissions)

2013-05-10T03:05:57Z

Erika is a techno artist hailing from Detroit, whose music is not sequenced by computer, but rather by hardware sequencers and synths. She is claimed in the album promotion to essentially be a vinyl DJ and analog composer.

Hexagon Cloud is Erika’s debut release and a double vinyl press. Her concepts attached to this album relate to science, space, microscopic organism, plant mutation and star birth.

These concepts were directly conjured in interluding tracks like ‘Early Warning Starfield’ and ‘Tunneling’. Other tracks like ‘North Hex’ and ‘Gardner’ were less concept-driven, and more straightforward and funky techno ass-shakers. These tracks will go down well if played out in a set to serious techno lovers.

The overlaying conceptual nature was reflected in these tracks in the ambient and minimal textures in the background, which created atmosphere on top of the pulsing and hypnotic rhythm.

In this sense, Hexagon Cloud has achieved its conceptual goals, and also made a great dance album to be played at in clubs, outdoors and warehouses globally. Hexagon Cloud may not appeal to a broader audience, but will resonate within its generic envelope and to those who love simple 4-4 atmospheres.

Link: http://interdimensionaltransmissions.com/discography/it-30-erika-hexagon-cloud

Erika – Hexagon Cloud (Interdimensional Transmissions) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Krill.minima – Sekundenschlaf (Psychonavigation)

2013-05-06T10:42:49Z

In Martin Juhls we have an artist who designs his music with architectural vision and efficiency. He writes that when setting to work on what will ultimately be heard as nearly amorphous, “I have a clear soundpicture, emotion and atmosphere in mind which I want to make hearable. Then I start collecting the sounds, chords and fragements which I think could work to create a comparable acoustic surrounding”.

He´s created some lovely, accessible hybrid ambient-orchestral music as Marsen Jules, particularly Herbstlaub and Les Fleurs (incorporating harp and vibraphone players), a little minimal house as Falter, and as Krill.minima some very distinctive dub techno. He slso tours his music as a trio and runs the Oktaf label, which last year hosted his co-curated tribute to Harold Budd, Lost in the Humming Air.

Regarded in a certain way, dub techno is the woozy jazz music of electronica, stretching the familiar into the unfamiliar on a frame of regular rhythm, and Sekundenschlaf is as sophisticated an effort as you´ll hear. Opening ambiently with “Substantial Drift,” co-written by Jean-Sébastien Roux (also known as Tlon and Deluge), eyelids begin to flutter; powerless to resist the soft petting of “Bienenkorb”, you are finally set adrift on the roll of the subtle bass swells of “Mamor (Debub)”. Having succumbed doesn´t necessarily mean slumber will be entirely dreamy. Despite its festive title, “Kalypso” is pure Cold War film noir and “Unter Druck” is beautifully insidious, almost subliminal brainwashing. Another Canadian, Jeff Morton (aka Nuthre) rides shotgun on the Transatlantic nightride “Montreal>Dortmund”.

Falling deeper and deeper, the details of the dream flee memory, and the generous, seventy-five minute album ends with the long, wet splatter of “Timbre”, a rude awakening after such a warm, dreamy hour. It´s a powerful, slowly unscrolling mural which will surely stand as one of the best of its genre, if not electronica as a whole, at the end of the year. Spare, just strange enough, and utterly original.

Stephen Fruitman

Krill.minima – Sekundenschlaf (Psychonavigation) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Shape Worship – Observances (Exotic Pylon)

2013-05-06T10:37:45Z

Shape Worship is the alias of London-based electronic producer Ed Gillet, and this debut 12” EP on Exotic Pylon ‘Observances’ sees him offering up six tracks that manage to smoothly join the dots between dubbed-out house, minimal techno and two-step. ‘Mzungu’ opens proceedings with what’s easily the most dancehall-flavoured moment here as icy synth trails provide a cold counterpoint to deep rumbling sub-bass swells and clattering two-step rhythms before pitched-down acid 303 lines begin to worm their way into the mix, the integration of sampled chiming percussion calling to mind Pantha Du Prince at points. By contrast, ‘Concentration’ sees cycling analogue synth arpeggios resolving themselves around a flexing backbone of broken tech-house rhythms and Burial-esque woodblock percussion, the introduction of treated backing vocals fusing nicely with the vaguely proggy synth atmospheres that hang in the background. ‘Air White Smoke Signal’ meanwhile gets more deep and contemplative, building up layers of glistening synths and treated piano textures against a brooding bassline while scraping sampled tones work their way around a woody-sounding broken house pulse. An impressive and moody debut that occasionally calls to mind hints of Four Tet’s shuffling, off-centre percussion.

Shape Worship – Observances (Exotic Pylon) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Ritornell – Aquarium Eyes (Karaoke Kalk)

2013-05-04T07:32:00Z

Austrian duo Richard Eigner and Roman Gerold emerged with their debut collection as Ritornell ‘Golden Solitude’ back in 2009, and four years on this second album on Karaoke Kalk ‘Aquarium Eyes’ sees them continuing to apply subtle digital trickery to a rich base of live instrumentation ranging from kalimba and cello through to piano and double bass. The resulting predominantly downbeat arrangements occasionally call to mind some of the Compost Records label’s warm yet jagged electronic-jazz outings, albeit given a considerably more moody and unpredictable twist. ‘The Morning Factory’ opens proceedings on a delicate note as rich woodwinds and phased synth trails float against fluttery, cut-up jazz drums and the deep sigh of double-bass, the resulting poignant atmosphere calling to mind early Cinematic Orchestra.

Elsewhere a suitably eerie cover of Roxy Music’s suburban alienation classic ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’ sees Viennese vocalist Mimu throwing a more slinky angle on the original, her chanteuse purr smoothly intersecting with shuffling snares and subtly manipulated plucked strings to spectacular effect as the percussion slowly grows into a wall of sound, before the instrumental ‘Aquarium Eyes’ gets more minimalist and spooky as treated pianos and percussion ripple against a glitchy backdrop of ambient electronics, the live drums locking down into a loose-limbed groove against trailing flutters of jazzy keys. It’s typical of the more abstracted directions also being explored elsewhere here on tracks such as ‘I’ve Stolen The Moon’, which offers up what’s easily one of this album’s more ominous yet graceful moments as manipulated chiming and plucked percussive tones gradually build into a rich carpet of textures beneath eerie jazz-noir piano keys and jagged snare breakdowns. An impressive second album that sees Ritornell introducing vocal elements to their meticulously edited arrangements to strong effect.

Ritornell – Aquarium Eyes (Karaoke Kalk) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Underground Lovers – Weekend (Rubber)

2013-05-19T03:09:46Z

If you backed me into a corner and forced me to make the choice, I would probably say that Underground Lovers are my favourite Australian act of all time, and that’s coming from someone who has a great deal of time for decades of Australian music. From the time I first heard their track, ‘Ripe’, on the seminal rooArt compilation, Youngblood 3, I was hooked. That was soon followed by their absolutely incredible second album, Leaves Me Blind. Referencing things my teenage self didn’t know existed such as krautrock, dub, drone and minimalism, it was a truly epiphanal experience for me. I saw the band at their first Sydney reunion show a few years back and was totally transported back. The original line-up played a set largely derived from that album, with rarely heard B-sides and the like thrown in for good measure. One of the Cyclic Defrost editors at the time urged me to write a review of the show. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was pure nostalgia, not really the point of Cyclic Defrost. It felt exactly like 1992, right down to the Annandale Hotel looking largely unchanged since both its, and the band’s, heyday.

I’ve heard a few rumours along various grapevines since then of the original lineup writing new material, readying themselves for a new album. Then, earlier this year, on receiving a link to a crowdfunding project to manufacture the new album, I signed up on the first weekend. They were always one of those bands whose new work I bought without bothering to check it out beforehand. So the only question now remaining is – How do Underground Lovers stand up 15 years after petering out?

One of the big things the band has in its favour is that, in spite of wide critical acclaim and a strong, loyal following, they were never really a fashionable band. Which has given them the advantage of being able to create new music which echoes their old work yet doesn’t sound dated, as that old work is not timelocked to 90s trends. Weekend, on the surface, feels very much like a stroll through the finer moments of the band’s 90s catalogue. To me, the basic Underground Lovers sound was always built on three basic elements – Glen Bennie’s beautiful guitar tone and way around single shape chord riffs, Vincent Giarusso’s yearningly melancholy melodies and Maurice Argiro’s hypnotic, repetitive, minimal bass loops. All are in effect across the album. As are a great many moments of contrast against those elements as well.

‘Spaces’ opens the album in a manner akin to how ‘Dream It Down’ starts the album that took its name, in a mood of contemplation, tension building without the release of a peak. The welcome return of Phillipa Nihil’s voice is one of the many varied textures of the band’s ever shifting sound, perfect in the dream pop here. Then it’s a breakout into the wide open light of ‘Can For Now’. I’m certain the title was a working one – ‘Can’ referring to the 70s German pioneers – that just stuck in the end, if the motorik of the rhythm is anything to go by. It is pure euphoric delight. ‘Haunted (Acedia)’ is a med-tempo wash purpose built for the falsetto leap in the chorus, Giarusso’s voice still giving me the same goose bumps, when he makes those jumps, as it did 20 years ago. ‘Riding’ scurries between its sly shifts from 9/4 to 4/4 and 7/4, its skittling drum machine background evoking the group’s later Ways To Burn album. ‘Au Pair’ is a real highlight, driven by an uptempo pulse and a top heavy bass riff that doesn’t give up for four and a half minutes, Bennie’s lava guitar fuzz exploding in and out as Giarusso builds to a frenzy. Another piece of dream pop follows as ‘In Silhouette’ showcases Nihil’s yearning voice before the 7 minute climax of ‘The Lie That Sets You Free’. It’s as perfect an encapsulation of Underground Lovers as one could expect – driving two note bass riff, synth swoops and arpeggios, backwards reverbed vocals, tension building until the guitar layers and interjections bliss out a glorious crescendo.

To call Weekend a return to form is a bit misleading. Underground Lovers never released a poor album. It was more the way the whole wonderful promise they made early in their career faded out through changing line-ups and commercial indifference that was disappointing. Weekend sounds like a band settled in the thought that they have nothing left to prove and therefore comes on with the air of confident brilliance. It echoes the group’s 90s wonder, yet feels fresh and timeless. What’s more, there is great promise that the next time I get to see them live, it won’t be a nostalgia show but, in turns, a melancholy and blistering insight into the now.

Adrian Elmer

Underground Lovers – Weekend (Rubber) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Metropolis Festival – Melbourne Recital Centre

2013-04-29T02:10:23Z

The Metropolis Festival, presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, is a Festival of New Music. Last year they brought out Steve Reich. This year they surprised with some bold and unexpected decisions, people who you wouldn’t traditionally equate with modern composition. With three artists in residence from London they featured performances from prodigious composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Ades, sample-based electronic producer Matthew Herbert and idiosyncratic electronic artist Mira Calix. Bob Baker Fish managed to get along to a couple of performances from the latter two.

MATTHEW HERBERT – The End Of Silence – Melbourne Recital Centre

UK producer Matthew Herbert has taken something of a diversion of late, his One trilogy of albums demonstrating a desire to use strange found sounds and field recordings to recontextualise sound or make political statements. It’s a world away from the jazz tinged electro torch songs of Bodily Functions, or even his adventures with his big band.

Tonight’s performance stems entirely from a 10 second recoding Herbert was sent of photographer Sebastian Meyer being bombed by a pro Gadaffi plane in Libya in 2011. He strides onto stage to rapturous applause and offers “for some reason I just want you to know that all of the sounds we are playing tonight all come from the recording, nothing else, and we’re playing them live.” The ‘we’ is his band, and the stage set-up is unlike anything you’ve ever seen: midi percussion, sampling keyboard, a desk with all manner of electronic trickery for Herbert, and well, a guy on wires.

The lights are dim, the mood sombre, and as they play the admittedly terrifying initial recording, with its thunderous boom, strange whistle and questionable audio quality that peaks out, the wire guy manipulates its pitch by pulling down at the wire.

We begin in a war zone and then comes the deconstruction, as over the next 50 odd minutes the band take individual parts away, chew them up, process them and then send them back to see how they interact with what their colleagues are doing. At times it meanders, as if the band are searching, though percussion from shrapnel tends to bring a backbone for the rest of the band to swing to. We never get that patented Herbert electro swing, but then surely there would be a little distasteful – jigging along to an instrument of such horrific violence and suffering.

Yet there is cohesion, or at least the threat of it, in particular some incredible evocative sub bass rumblings. The band plays with density, and texture, though also occasional (possibly unintentional) frightening increases in volume. They’re at their best when they’re playing their sounds in a musical way, a thin whistle becomes a melodic piano loop, the impact, the bass drum, the shrapnel percussion and the white noise gristle on the side. It’s a bold and unconventional performance that demonstrates that in Herbert’s hands you shouldn’t draw conclusions too quickly – sound is complex and multi layered, continuing to evolve, and as this performance suggests, so too is meaning.

MATTHEW HERBERT – ONE PIG – METROPOLIS FESTIVAL – Melbourne Recital Centre

Dressed in a shirt and tie, over which he dons a white butchers coat, socio political composer, sampler, electronic music producer and now theatrical showman Matthew Herbert takes to the stage with his quintet in tow, to rapturous applause.

One Pig is the title of Herbert’s controversial latest album, with all sounds gathered from the life cycle of a pig, sonically documenting its development over twenty weeks, before its eventual trip to the abattoir, and ultimately the plate.

In the centre of the stage there’s what can only be described as a sty, a fence like structure, made up of a series of wires around four metal posts. Band member (and inventor of this instrument) Yann Seznec, triggers samples, and adjusts pitch, volume and tempo, by grabbing manically at the wires, and it’s an incredible performance. Strangely it’s he, not Herbert, who is the centre of attention, to the point where he signals each new piece by changing his coat, each adorned with a corresponding month on the back. When he gets to a red coat you know the future isn’t looking good for this little piggy.

The band meanwhile are incredible, creating melodies out of strange quite unmusical samples. They begin by sampling the hay strewn across the stage, and then each member contributes vocal sounds. There are keys, Herbert with all of his weird electronics, and the percussionist who alternates between his digital drum pad, and pig skin djembe. Creating strange wondrous soundscapes, they also delve into those distinctively clipped Herbert styled percussive funk jams, the field recordings coming from a frenzied Seznec clawing at his wires. At one surreal point the whole band end up in the sty, with all members earnestly clawing at the wires and toying with the samples. There’s surely a metaphor in there somewhere.

It’s about this time that a local chef joins the stage, and begins to cook the pork, and the sizzling is incorporated into the music. The smell is remarkable, surreal, somewhat disconcerting, adding a certain layer of tension as the band create incredibly fractured, at times noisy dance music. As the food is plated up the band retreat to a dining table, and Herbert to the mic, where he sings a beautifully touching ode to enjoying the time you have. Then he feeds us.

It’s a show that has everything; incredible musicianship, a remarkable thought provoking conceit that takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you consider the food you eat, dazzling theatricality, and of course some great crackling.

MIRA CALIX – Fables and Other Works – Melbourne Recital Centre

UK artist and composer Mira Calix is renowned for her five albums on Warp, though she’s increasingly moved from predominantly solo electronic works to multidisciplinary collaborations and commissions incorporating more classical orchestration. These days her bread and butter tends to be installations, orchestras, operas and festivals. But to many of us she’ll simply be known as the bug lady, after she unleashed 2004’s Three Commissions, where she was given the keys to the kingdom to create her work. Or perhaps more particularly the bugs to the kingdom, where her electronics interacted with insects and the London Sinfonietta on the piece Nunu.

There are bugs on stage tonight in a little glass fish bowl to the right of the stage and during the quieter moments you can hear their calls. They sound like crickets.

Tonight’s works come in the main from site-specific instillation works, from her collaborations with neuroscientists, mineralogists and entomologists. The thing about Mira Calix is that she loves to collaborate with science.

She begins with the bugs. The screen behind her comes to life and we’re greeted with Ken Burns style pans across intensely colourful insects in jars. Calix is joined on stage by strings and cello, who pluck haphazardly at their instruments and it feels like some kind of jungle chorus. The tune is an interpretation of Nunu off the aforementioned Three Commissions, with Calix building and manipulating the insect sounds until they interact with the classical instrumentation. It’s a beautiful immersive work that seems to take nature documentaries as a cue in terms of the classical accompaniment that is regularly used for score, yet simultaneously circumvents them by developing a very real interactive relationship with what is usually the subject: the insects themselves. This pushes the music into new and unexpected directions.

Later she’s joined by a large vocal choir and her more recent interest in classical orchestration becomes increasingly apparent, particularly her interest in the human voice. Piano and strings join the voices, with Calix occasionally bringing in some bottom end drone, but in the main her sonic contribution is minimal and quite subtle. Her ensemble, made up of piano, violin, viola, cello and clarinet play pieces by Ades, Ligetti and Saariaho, but in the main it’s Calix’s own compositions, and they’re very much placed in this new music modern composition world. One of her pieces is all new, a commission from this very festival. He Fell Amongst the Roses is based upon data Calix gathered from a unique panel of wood from the Recital Centre, that she then mapped on a scale and outputted as piano music. It’s safe to say that whilst her pieces might confound, with their unusual structures and at times odd orchestration, it may be explained by these kinds of unusual methods of composition, and this is what makes her idiosyncratic music so fascinating.

MIRA CALIX – Looking For Cowslips – Salon (Melbourne Recital Centre)

The following afternoon Calix is in the Salon for a more intimate performance, of her text-heavy repertoire that she’s placed under the banner Looking For Cowslips. It’s a body of work that is quite wordy, much more so than the previous night and necessitates a soprano, offering such nuggets as “I heard about this woman who at 37 weeks the cord was wrapped around … and all these stories come my way.” This text comes from Toby Litt and the music from UK composer Emily Hall. For Calix, who is much more relaxed and attempting to shake off a Moscow flu, it’s an opportunity to present work from some of her favourite writers and composers. Two of the best pieces in particular come from an opera score she composed for the dark ominous, Dead Wedding, with both works imbued with a palpable feeling of unease.

Joined by similar instrumentation to the previous night, clarinet, cello, viola, piano and violin, Calix watches proceedings with a wry smile from behind her laptop and large mixing desk. The melodies generated by her players are simple, uncluttered, working off notation, often pausing, providing space for delicate electric flourishes, a pluck or a plink, and then it’s a return to the sparse somewhat restrained melodic material. Later Calix brings in disembodied voices and a few electronic harp notes.

These works today are all new music classical performances, without too much overt injection from Calix, aside from towards the end where she brings in big soupy bombastic, almost dance music, which is both somewhat of a shock, even out of place considering the stately experimentation that preceded it.

Tonight is a real demonstration of how far Calix has progressed from her earlier, more electronic works. The comfort and affinity she displays with the classical orchestration produces some really challenging and memorable work, not to mention possibly the last thing you would expect from someone on Warp’s roster.

Bob Baker Fish

Metropolis Festival – Melbourne Recital Centre is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

The Longest Day Cyclic Defrost interview

2013-04-28T05:16:44Z

Since their earliest beginnings as the result of jamming sessions in a Sydney sharehouse back in 1997 inspired by the likes of Flying Saucer Attack and My Bloody Valentine, space-rock / shoegaze duo The Longest Day have gone on to outlive many other similar bands. While co-founders Jay Annabel and Brad Stafford now live in two different cities (Annabel in Canberra while Stafford resides in Sydney), they’ve continued to build up a steady body of work, with their latest release ‘Beyond Your Skies’ offering up their fourth album in total. After initially emerging on the recording front with 2005′s debut collection ‘Slumber’, apparently the result of an idea idly raised during a drunken conversation, the duo’s two ensuing albums, 2006′s ‘Sounds Of Jupiter’ and 2008′s ‘Night Falls’ saw their dreamlike fusion of blurred vocals, ethereal guitar drones and almost icy sounding soundscapes reaching an even greater level of depth and poignancy. Following an almost four year break, The Longest Day’s latest fourth album ‘Beyond Your Skies’ illustrates just how much they’ve progressed once again during the intervening time, with this latest record easily coming across as their most cohesive and fully realised collection of songs to date.

One of my first impressions upon listening to the new album was just how much larger the duo’s sonic palette sounds, with an increased scope and depth present on all of the tracks that’s a discernible jump from their early, more laptop-centred work. When I catch up with Jay and Brad via phone and email respectively, I venture that the new album strikes me as a big leap forward for the band. “I’d tend to agree with you”, Jay agrees modestly. “It definitely sounds a lot more complete to me. We have the huge tracks and the droney tracks…you get a lot more out of this album if you listen to it in order rather than shuffle. It was definitely designed that way. Sometimes less can be more. On our last record ‘Night Falls’, some tracks are very heavily layered and in hindsight maybe there’s too much layering, but I think we’ve learnt to restrain ourselves a bit more effectively between then and now. That’s not to say that there’s no layering – there’s one song that has 7 or 8 guitar parts, but we’re probably getting better at leaving space in the music.”

“We also spend a long time on mixing, and part of that is panning,” Jay continues. “So some songs can sound a bit bigger when we for instance record a guitar part twice, then separate them slightly in the mix. Other things come by accident. For instance, there’s a double tracked vocal part on the album that came about because we weren’t happy with the first take so we recorded it again, then discovered by accident that it sounded really good if we used both takes at the same time. “Also, we’ve used an electronic drumkit for this album, so the mix is better,” adds Brad. “For our last album we used a real kit with one mic to record it, so it was a much more lo-fi outcome, which suited us at the time, but obviously produces a very different sound.”

I also suggest that there’s more of a focus on lyrics this time, with the duo’s vocals sitting more prominently in the mix on many tracks. “It wasn’t a conscious thing, but I agree that’s what happened,” replies Jay. “We didn’t discuss it, it just turned out that way. It’s interesting because this is the first album where I’m singing on three songs, mainly because I had lyrics that were worth singing. I’ve never asked Brad what he’s getting at (in his lyrics). We never really ask each other what each other’s lyrics are about. The thread is more the music than the lyrics. Having said that, there are two really vague songs about climate change issues, but they’re not overt and most people wouldn’t notice.”

“Some people have said that they still can’t hear what we’re singing, but that could also be because the lyrics for one song contain bits of Swedish and Icelandic. Mixing takes about as long as recording because as we live in different cities, coming up with mixes we’re both happy with can be a long, iterative process. Perhaps this means we listen more closely to what we hope listeners can get out of the record, and maybe nudging the vocals up a bit came out of that. But we didn’t have a plan for it.”

“I think you’ll find more vocal tracks and a progressive upping of those vocal tracks in the mixes of each album over time, probably for two reasons,” Brad suggests. “One, I think our songwriting has delivered more traditionally structured rock / pop songs that naturally call for vocals to be more prominent in a song’s make-up, and two, it probably reflects at least for me a developing confidence in vocal ability and the lyrics themselves. But then again, as Jay said, it’s never been a point of conversation between us.”

As well as appearances from Fourplay’s Peter and Tim Hollo on ‘The Tempest’, ‘Beyond Your Skies’ also features longtime ‘third’ member and Boston resident Christy Romanick on guitar and vocals, and she’s also responsible for the album’s striking sleeve photography. “I don’t know how she does what she does,” admits Jay. “She’s done all the art since the second album. She doesn’t treat anything, it’s all unfiltered. It was really hard to get a visual palette on the last album that suited the music, but this time we really got it right.”

In parting, I ask the duo what plans they currently have in terms of playing live shows surrounding the release of ‘Beyond Your Skies.’ “We recently played a gig at the Phoenix in Canberra, which went extremely well,” replies Jay. “It was however, our first gig of 2012. We have a couple of ways of performing given there’s just the two of us, but we want to sound like a four-piece. We’ve previously borrowed bass players and drummers from other bands, which has worked well in the past, but adds an extra degree of difficulty to organising a show.”

“The alternative is to use a laptop on which we play the bass and drum parts we’d recorded ourselves earlier. It sounds similar, but maybe it’s an odd dynamic for an audience to see two people playing that sound like four. But even with just the two of us plus laptop, we still don’t seem to find the time to play very often. However, we are planning hopefully one more show in Canberra before the end of the year, as well as a show in Sydney in November or thereabouts. It would be great to get the opportunity to play in Melbourne or Brisbane, and playing a show in Boston with our friend Christy remains the dream.”

The Longest Day’s new album ‘Beyond Your Skies’ is out now through Feral Media

The Longest Day Cyclic Defrost interview is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Koji Asano – August is Fall (Solstice)

2013-05-04T07:43:45Z

Koji Asano has produced some ugly music in his time and with August is Fall, his 49th album for his own Solstice label, he’s made some more of it. However Asano releases are always at least interesting, his prolific verbosity, single mindedness and refusal to articulate making even his most unlistenable productions enigmatic.

August is Fall comprises three long tracks, each around 20 minutes. Like his recent releases a similar mood dominates, each track a different take on the album’s ‘core sound’, a bit like Satie’s Gymnopedies for noise. The theme here is dull metallic grind, sustained, staggered, and subtly tweaked over long durations. ‘I’ is possibly the least approachable, due to short dropouts, like a scratched CD, which interrupt the screech, before widening out to prolonged white noise, lurching bumps and beehive frenzy. In ‘II’ the industrial whine is heard through an open window of a ship in a gale, a circular saw battling strong winds. ‘III’ is the most musical, a more formal exercise in digital signal meltdown, slow waves of crackle echoing in an empty tunnel, hints of musical tones clogged, like old hair, in a dirty drain.

Koji Asano – August is Fall (Solstice) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Misfit Mod – Islands & Islands (Stars & Letters)

2013-04-27T14:19:22Z

This debut album from Misfit Mod ‘Islands & Islands’ has been some years in the making, with electronic producer / songwriter Sarah Kelleher having initially started work on the eleven tracks here whilst living in New Zealand, before relocating to her current base of London during 2008. While Kelleher’s blend of hypnotic, close-miked vocals, minimalist analogue synths and sparse drum machine beats has previously been compared to the likes of Zola Jesus, there’s a distinctly less self-consciously spooky / goth aesthetic going on. Indeed, I found instead that a lot of ‘Islands & Islands’ reminded me a lot more of early Nite Jewel before she become more slick and polished, and considerably less interesting.

This entire album glides along at an unhurried pace. ‘Sugar C’ sees gentle Moog bass murmuring beneath twinkling electronics as Kelleher’s multitracked harmonies provide a lush backdrop to her own untreated yearning lead vocal, the end result curiously calling to mind some fusion between Hope Sandoval and Laurie Anderson’s icy minimalism. ‘Cars (II)’ pushes the levels of eeriness up a few notches as sparse programmed handclaps inject a ghostly hiphop edge to Kelleher’s RNB-tinged vocal delivery amidst a carpet of swelling backing harmonies, while ‘Queen Love Zero’ easily offers up one of the more Zola-esque moments here, as weary-sounding drum machines trace a monotonous path beneath icy synth chords and Kelleher’s reverb-drenched vocals, the delayed-out backing vocals draping themselves like a gauzy fog around the entire mix, to beautifully hypnotic and dark effect. An impressive debut album that marks Misfit Mod out as an artist to watch – let’s hope Kelleher’s follow-up isn’t quite so lengthy in the making.

Misfit Mod – Islands & Islands (Stars & Letters) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Monkey Marc – Monkey Marc vs The Planet Smashers (Jahtari)

2013-04-21T01:09:32Z

A Melburnian now spending most of his time in Berlin, who apparently works in a solar-powered studio fashioned from a converted shipping container, Monkey Marc (real name Marc Peckham) is probably best known to most people as the main producer behind the socially conscious dub/hip-hop collective Combat Wombat. Three years on from his impressive debut solo album As The Market Crashed, this latest 12” EP on Jahtari Monkey Marc vs The Planet Smashers sees Peckham offering up six new tracks that smoothly blend chunky hiphop rhythms with deep, dubby bass atmospheres.

In this case the focus falls upon predominantly instrumental tracks, with ’303 Dub’ grafting a rigid backbone of clattering boom-bap snares onto an eerie oceanic swirl of dubbed-out ragga guitars and waspy analogue synths, before ‘Change Is Gonna Come’ sees a dubbed out wash of horns and echoing soul vocals intoning the title phrase trailing over a relentless MPC drum groove that calls to mind some meeting point between Prince Paul and the Mad Professor. Elsewhere, ‘Who Goes There Dub’ offers up a squelching space-dub retake on the recent Roots Manuva track that places the emphasis on flickering snare interplay and ricocheting laser-like FX, before ‘Qwest Dub’ takes things off into the sunset as jagged guitar echoes roll against Morricone-esque harmonica tones and a chunky rolling drum break. One comparison that comes to mind here is some of the Vienna-based G-Stone label’s forays into smoked-out dub/hip-hop, with the sharp focus snap of the beats nicely counterpointing the more vaporous layers.

Chris Downton

Monkey Marc – Monkey Marc vs The Planet Smashers (Jahtari) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Jon Rose – Rosin (RER)

2013-04-21T01:07:16Z

Australian violinist, composer, instrument builder, improviser, educator and cultural icon Jon Rose is a restless and innovative spirit. One moment he’s improvising madly in a live performance at the Now Now Festival, the next he’s delivering a lecture on the ABC lamenting Rolf Harris’ failure to constructively utilise his not inconsiderable gifts as proof for the non existence of God.

Forget what you think you know about new music and improvisation. Forget the leanings towards Europe and cultural cringe, because Rose is very keen to use extended techniques to explore (or create) a distinctly Australian tradition. He’s quoted on the ABC website as saying, “Concert halls are sweet but they kinda tend to be boring. Stuff happens when you’re outside.”

And he puts his money where his mouth is, his practice demonstrating a desire to connect to people and objects that would never come into contact with a concert hall or experimental music. His recently completed tour of regional NSW is a case in point, taking his ‘Sound Circus’ of some of Australia’s weirdest experimental and improvised musicians to bemused locals from Broken Hill to Milparinka Graveyard.

Rosin celebrates Rose’s 60th year on the planet, attempting to compile some of his more groundbreaking work, much of which hasn’t seen the light of day in Australia. It’s an impressive 3cd, plus one data disc (with QuickTime videos) box set, jam packed with a truly diverse range of sounds and techniques, with not only some really extensive liner notes, but also even some hair from one of his bows.

A central theme of Rose’s work is the recontextualisation of everyday non-musical items, drawing them into his work and redefining them as music making objects of art. This offers a way in for people not familiar with art music, though also provides a broader social comment about the utilitarian nature of objects – particularly when dealing with culturally significant objects like an AFL football from his Ball Project, which is fitted with pressure sensors and accelerometers, utilising their movement to stream audio and visual content. It appears here as ‘Sphere’ on track 3, a 26 minute radiophonic broadcast that pits the unpredictability of the ball against violin, cello and choir. Of the project Rose notes “the ball is released into a chaotic self disorganizing situation. No one is sure of the results either acoustically, sonically or legally.”

Since 1983 he’s been bowing outback fences, though also fences worldwide from Israel to the US/ Mexican border, coaxing geopolitical celestial tones from an object designed to restrict freedom, an object of confinement. He’s even created mobile fences and composed a piece for the Kronos Quartet to play live. In fact he created 4 fences, which he tested in his garage, which appear on this collection. Titled ‘Garage Fence’, it’s amazing how resonant these fences are, with Rose playing in a much more percussive manner than you’d expect initially. There’s also some video footage of him playing a barbwire fence and outback fences in WA.

His art is social, political, challenging and often times just a little bit cheeky. Yet through the humour there’s often a more sobering message of traditions being lost as progress beckons.

The Pannikin Project, created for the Melbourne Festival a few years back, offers improvising performances with a singing dingo, virtuosic whip techniques, department store pianists, a simultaneous hum and whistler, an auctioneer, a chainsaw orchestra and a bowed saw orchestra. In short Rose sought out these bizarre sound and music makers, celebrating their individuality and unique talents, largely ignored by not just mainstream media, but pretty much everyone aside from Rose. The first disc mostly consists of these vibrant, at times confusing, frequently hilarious performances. Though later there’s a 16-minute extract of a Deutschland Radio piece from 2007 Syd and George, about the 20-year relationship between National Pak Ranger Syd and George the lyrebird from Lamington National Park, with Rose playing the string parts. It’s a fascinating tale, with the piece giving equal focus to all three participants. It’s these kind of idiosyncratic sonic tales that continue to intrigue Rose.

It’s when you get to the QuickTime videos and suddenly we have a visual element that it all starts to make sense. The footage of Robin Fox and co riding bikes fitted with everything from guitars to record players and literally the kitchen sink in Pursuit says it all. It’s sonically interesting, visually head scratching, freakishly creative and utterly stupid. Then there’s the violocycle that Rose rides in a velodrome, creating this amazing elongated moan. It’s truly a beautiful sound. He plays fences, somewhat hyperactively on the Wogarno Fence, creating almost electronic textures via his extended technique, that he approaches with the rigour of a concert hall performance. But that seems to be Rose in a nutshell, whether he’s duetting with flies by scraping his violin across a window, using a kobelco front end hoe excavator with a minimum 250 kilo loading, a midi controller bow, a quadraphonic k bow, a violin record player, or a 19 string cello, he does so with boundless creativity, curiosity and focus.

Rosin collects some of Rose’s unique musical obsessions over the years. It demonstrates a unique personal vision alongside an endless curiosity about tradition, social convention, and cultural icons. He’s not just using music to make sense of the world, but constructing pieces of music offering equal parts humour, absurdity and insight, that ask us to reconsider our own relationship to sound. A true musical icon.

Bob Baker Fish

Jon Rose – Rosin (RER) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Reso – Tangram Remixed (Civil Music)

2013-04-21T01:04:42Z

When UK-based electronic producer Alex Melia released his considerably anticipated debut album as Reso Tangram late last year, it certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of his established penchant for combining punishing industrial dubstep structures with an extremely detailed production aesthetic which at times calls to mind the likes of Amon Tobin. Six months on, this download-only album offers up an impressive if at times relentlessly punishing remix companion, with a divergent lineup of producers ranging from Ninja Tune’s DJ Kentaro through to Drop The Lime and Evol Intent being enlisted to rework tracks from Tangram.

KOAN Sound kick proceedings off with a seriously contorted reworking of ‘Axion’ that places some additional dancehall ballast in the bass drops before smashing headlong into all manner of crushed-up DSP trickery, the distorted snares eventually resolving into a throbbing, relentless groove that powers the entire track to a seriously corrupted finish. Om Unit meanwhile opts for more widescreen junglist atmospheres with his remix of ‘Simple Pleasures’, the fluid skittering breakbeats and dark sheeny synthscapes calling to mind the likes of Omni Trio and classic Moving Shadow, before Starkey reworks ‘Check 1,2′ into a bounce-heavy mass of harsh rave stabs and 2 Bad Mice-style retro hardcore breakbeats. It’s up to Evol Intent though to provide one of the most white-knuckled moments here with their reworking of ‘Ishimura’, with paranoid urgent synth arpeggios and spooky xenomorph samples sending things tumbling into a headscrambling storm of timestretched kickdrums, in what’s easily one of the more breakcore-centred moments here. Fierce, intricate and nasty – I can’t say I expected anything less from the always impressive Reso.

Chris Downton

Reso – Tangram Remixed (Civil Music) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Various Artists – TeamSupreme: Collection 1 (Alpha Pup)

2013-04-08T08:19:32Z

Curiously enough, the roots of TeamSupreme originally lie in a game between a group of likeminded producers operating around the LA hip-hop scene, the challenge being to make a one minute long beat in just one hour, using a set BPM and sample lifted from the Notorious B.I.G. What originally started as an idle joke soon became a weekly podcast, with producers from New York, Colorado and even Hawaii soon clamouring to get in on the action. Inspired by the podcast, this debut compilation on Alpha Pup sees the original one minute limit being relaxed, and there’s no sign of Biggie to be found here. The original spirit of the TeamSupreme challenge is certainly vividly captured though, with the each of the 19 predominantly lesser-known names here contributing instrumental beats that for the most part don’t stretch past the three minute mark.

While things mostly centre around a hip-hop/beats aesthetic, there’s an impressively diverse range of styles on show here. Elos represents one of the few names I was previously familiar with here, his ‘Clean Under Dirt’ offering up an eerie stripped-back downbeat wander that sees spooky synth tones and vocal samples drifting against spidery hip-hop beats before ending in a hilariously profane blaxploitation sample. Kendo’s ‘No Preservatives’ meanwhile ventures out towards witch-house at points, as tense footwork snare rolls slowly build momentum against thick walls of sub-bass, and delicate Asian-sounding synth melodies, before Colta’s ‘Showing’ unleashes a juddering collision of buzzing robotic synths and siren tones that suddenly accelerates out into fluid grimy rhythms and technicolour synth noodling, whilst managing to cram some Technotronic in there too. While most of the artists adhere fairly firmly to the hiphop template, Snorlax’s ‘Bottle Service’ offers an atypical divergence into off-centre breakstep house as bright, pitched up vocal samples dart against tumbling layers of percussion, before Papi’s ‘All Nite’ takes things out with a mutant retro-disco funk workout that’s easily one of the biggest highlights here. All up, Collection 1 is an impressive introduction to the collective of talent that’s sprung up to meet TeamSupreme’s initial one minute beat challenge.

Chris Downton

Various Artists – TeamSupreme: Collection 1 (Alpha Pup) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

William Ryan Fritch – The Waiting Room OST (Lost Tribe Sound)

2013-04-02T00:51:33Z

The Waiting Room is a documentary from Peter Nicks about one 24-hour period in the waiting room of Oakland’s Highland Hospital. The film touches on on how the patients (many of whom are uninsured), staff and caregivers deal with the injuries, disease, frustration and bureaucracy.

The score too is from an Oakland resident.

You might know William Ryan Fritch from his role as bandleader in Anticon stalwart Sole’s Skyrider Band, or via a slew of fourth world excursions under his Vieo Abiungo moniker. Yet his score for the Oscar nominated The Waiting Room demonstrates another string to his bow – an ability to craft subtle emotive suites of sound for cinema. The results are remarkable and affecting, even without having seen the film.

Fritch’s score is sparse, recorded in his home studio, and imbued with an uplifting feeling, a certain hope, and dignity, despite the dire situation of many of the films participants. In this sense it does what all too few scores do, which is communicate something different than the images, and in doing so add a further level of complexity to the film.

The music is deceptively minimal, modern classical music, pretending to be film music, with some intricate gestures that posses an almost pop sensibility. Utilising strings, piano, glockenspiel, cello, electric bass, electric guitar and various other percussive instruments, it’s clear that Fritch isn’t simply following conventions here. It really feels like a synthesis of his numerous musical preoccupations.

At times you can hear a tip of the hat to say Michael Nyman, on the piano based ‘Coda’, yet as the piece progresses Fritch allows elements of his Vieo Abuingo personality to creep in via some resonant glockenspiel and it becomes all his. Much of the album consists of big swells of sound, followed by gentle pulses that breathe through the music, providing an unexpected somewhat rhythmic base.

The reason this album is so good is that it shares elements of nu music and neo classical music, however he approaches the form with a pop sensibility, and Fritch is keen to drag elements of his other guises to creep in. A groaning bottom end on The Last Line Of Defense, the unusual percussion in the cost, the value of health, even the mischievous stomp of hold high your head, in which sweeping noisy strings threaten to and ultimately are allowed to engulf a gorgeous melodic run of first piano, then glockenspiel notes

This is score is really quite remarkable, it’s complex and emotive music that not only elevates the form, but allows Fritch to do so on his own terms, without losing his distinctive musical personality.

Bob Baker Fish

William Ryan Fritch – The Waiting Room OST (Lost Tribe Sound) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Graveyard Tapes – Our Sound is Our Wound (Lost Tribe Sound)

2013-04-02T00:49:55Z

There’s nothing like being confused by an album. In an age where you usually just need to listen to the first track to know what you’re in for, Graveyard Tapes don’t provide any easy answers. The first two songs couldn’t be more different. ‘Gravebell’ opens with finessed digitalia, a repetitive pulsing dose of feedback that delves into difficult pitches, that is then consumed by noise. The second piece, ‘Bloodbridge’ features gentle piano, electrics skittering around the seams and heartfelt, Sparklehorse-esque vocals.

It’s a really fascinating way to not just sequence, but create music. They play with tension and release, creating moods, creating worlds, then mixing and matching between worlds that don’t normally meet. The third piece, ‘Gravebat’ doesn’t help either, a locked repetitive groove, vocals through thin urgent lips, and again a layer of skittery electrics. That’s before the horns come in.

Graveyard Tapes are in their own little world. It’s the first album for Scottish duo of Euan McMeekan (Kays Lavelle/Glacis) and Matthew Collings (Sketches For Albinos), who make fractured, beautiful wounded music, that’s simultaneously experimental and comforting. Their music is relatively sparse, as if their desire to have their feet in both the experimental electronics, and indie pop worlds has left them somehow exposed, working with frames and skeletons, without the genre’s usual ingredients to fill in the gaps. There’s a looseness in structure here, in the way the more song based elements interact with the electrics. In fact despite the often-percussive highly textural pulses coursing through the tunes, there’s a certain feeling of stillness, of stasis. The lyrics are mournful, emotive, self involved and all consuming – an insular world unto themselves.

It’s a bold mix that refuses easy categorisation and instead seems intent on forging new ground. What’s curious is that the combination of the disparate ingredients seems to add an additional feeling of gravity to proceedings.

Then of course there’s the packing. It’s a remarkable limited edition hardcover concertina book, a work of art itself, complete with a 10-panel display featuring illustrations from UK artist Jamie Mills.

Bob Baker Fish

Graveyard Tapes – Our Sound is Our Wound (Lost Tribe Sound) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.