Cyclic Defrost

Charles Alex March – Home/Hidden (Lo Recordings/Inertia)

2010-03-16T22:53:25Z

A strange and ultimately rewarding new release from the label that has built its reputation on strange and ultimately rewarding releases. ‘Plan 9′ kicks in, sounding science-fiction alright, but not Ed Wood – much more low budget late 70s/early 80s BBC, all plastic synth blips and live drums. The theremin whine does make an appearance in the background, though, just to get that knowing smile on your face.

There’s 3 main forms of music across Home/Hidden – the aforementioned cheap synthetic plink-plonk, a much more lush orchestration as appears on ‘Francisca’s Theme’, and work created on a buzzy, seldom tuned tack piano which appear later on in the album, on tracks such as ‘Telephone Song’ and ‘Kyoko’s Broken Piano’. As the album progresses, these slightly disparate elements congeal more cohesively and it is this that leaves me, at album’s end, feeling like it has unfurled out before me and, what initially sounded strange, pulled together to make sense.

There’s no getting away from the feeling that many of these tunes sound like theme songs or soundtrack music, perhaps even that dark, mysterious world of library music. It’s in the track titles – ‘Mao’, ‘Snow Feet’ or ‘The Lost Levels’. But this is not soundtracking in the grandiose manner of Hollywood, or even detached European abstraction. It is a very specific and nostalgic Britishness, remembered from small screen visual inspiration. It reminds me very much of nature documentaries I watched as a child in the early 80s, or British drama of the same era. In contrast with much contemporary post-rock and bass-fueled rhythm music, which constantly seek grandeur and infinite space, there is an overwhelming pull here towards smallness – towards acoustic space about the size of a suburban living room. It’s a remarkably refreshing change.

Perhaps I’ve interpreted the title, Home/Hidden, too literally and defined this music by the boundaries I perceive March has given it. But the sense of a nostalgia for something that is not often on the receiving end of a revisionist glow gives the work an incredible charm and I’m quite satisfied to be transferred back to the feelings of pre-internet, even pre-video, vivid yet unrecordable (at the time) engagement with culture from the other side of the world.

Adrian Elmer

Charles Alex March – Home/Hidden (Lo Recordings/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Telafonica – Love On The Second Stair (4-4-2 Music)

2010-03-16T22:51:47Z

In the twelve months that have passed since the release of Telafonica’s preceding mini-album I Saw This And Thought Of You, there have certainly been some substantial changes within the Sydney-based band. While founding member David Hughes is now based in the UK (though he’s still responsible for the album artwork here, three new members – Eliza Magill, Rebecca Elmer and Blake Wassell now augment original founder member Adrian Elmer. It’s a change that’s immediately apparent upon listening to this latest album. While I Saw This… saw Telafonica fashioning tracks still primarily geared around synths and electronics, Love On The Second Stair positively drips with increased sonic detail and live instrumentation, with glockenspiels, cornet and even curtain rods being pressed into service amongst the nine tracks collected here.

With all three new members contributing vocals and songwriting, there’s also more of a tangible ‘band’ atmosphere, as well as noticeably more stylistic variation. Opening track ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ manages to carry more than a stray hint of Animal Collective’s psychedelic rush as tumbling percussion and rattling textures give way to harmonised group vocals and the lush fusion of buzzing synths, rock guitars and tribal drumming, the latter element in particular calling to mind one of Caribou’s blissful wanders.

The electronics manage to rear their heads more on crisp electro-pop offering ‘Smells Like Rain’, with thick analogue synths and digitally-edited handclaps powering their way beneath Adrian Elmer’s slightly treated vocals, but in this case the more overtly synthetic elements are nicely counterbalanced by the crashing live cymbals and jangly guitar figures that play against them. The same is certainly true of ‘But I Lose Myself’ – with its insistent almost-house rhythm, sudden bursts of tripped-out synths and nagging melodic riff, it’s easily the most dancefloor-centred moment here; but in this case, the weary-sounding group harmonies and wheezing harmoniums manage to take it to a different place entirely. Elsewhere, the delicate ‘The Quest For Love Aboard The Belafonte’ sees typewriters providing an intriguingly effective rhythmic base for elegant piano keys and melancholic female vocals, while ‘Aeowyn And The Absolute Truth’, easily this record’s most stripped-back and direct moment, sees slow, rasping cello tones and swelling bass atmosphere forming an appropriately subtle backdrop for Elmer’s spiralling, delayed-out vocal harmonies. Love On The Second Stair manages to impress with both its level of ambition and diversity, making it easily the strongest release I’ve heard from Telafonica, as well as an intriguing new direction.

Chris Downton

Telafonica – Love On The Second Stair (4-4-2 Music) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Pecou – Symphonie du Jaguar / Vague de pierre (Harmonia Mundi)

2010-03-16T05:42:20Z

The music of Thierry Pecou is marked by a frightening level of intensity, where continual instability is nonetheless governed by clear logic. Violent contrasts shock like Webern, but the manner in which they organically unfold makes such juxtapositions easier to follow, with passages of patient calm comfortably perched beside blasts of sheer noise. The performances throughout this disc of orchestral works is captivating, and the recording luminously vivid.

Symphonie du Jaguar proceeds like a kind of intricate, menacing symphonic exotica, with percussion battering like a postmodern Stravinsky, and vocal utterances reminiscent of the polyglot chattering of Messiaen’s Harawi. Also like Messiaen, Pecou is interested here in depicting grand cosmic themes, specifically the ‘great antagonistic forces’ which structured ancient Mayan civilisations: ‘the opposition between the visible, solar world and the invisible, nocturnal world’. Light and dark thus blend and clash, the first movement ‘Volatile’ a display of nervous energy, released in bright tone bursts in the following ‘Tres modere’. ‘Akbal’ involves buzzing didgeridoo-like raspberries and a lurching New Orleans styled march, while the finale ends in a predictable, yet satisfying, explosion of sound.

‘Vague du pierre’ is inspired by Shi Tao, a Chinese literary painter of the seventeenth century, and by Chinese art and philosophy in a broader sense. As such its less directly evocative, but no less dramatic, exploring concepts of time, purpose, and silence, and intended to be listened to ‘as one looks at the mountain with its imposing sides, its unattainable peaks enveloped in mist, or as one contemplates the infinity of the sea’. Moods shift and switch, and the passages of silence which punctuate the piece make the crashing waves of brass and sliding strings all the more exciting. Two magnificent, grand pieces, demonstrating Pecou to be a master of controlling vast sound forces.

Joshua Meggitt

Pecou – Symphonie du Jaguar / Vague de pierre (Harmonia Mundi) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 15 March 2010

2010-03-15T22:44:46Z

The Paradigm Shift is a weekly Monday night radio show which (since 1995) has been presented by Sub Bass Snarl on Sydney radio station 2SER fm 107.3MHz – check the 2SER website for the high quality live web stream!

It airs Monday nights at the time of 7.30pm for 90 minutes (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

If you think your music would suit the show also please get in touch (320s welcome!) – EMAIL: paradigmshift [AT] 2ser [dot] com

This week in an attempt to ‘bring a little bit of Seb back into the show’ I played the recording of the first 40 or so minutes of us doing the Sub Bass Snarl decks/fx/samplers thing we do and in fact did supporting Shackleton down at Index on Saturday night.

Pupajim – I Am A Robot (Disrupt Mix) [I Am A Robot (Disrupt Mix)] (Jahtari)
Dot.AY – You Knight [New Weird Australia, Volume Five] ( http://newweirdaustralia.com/ ) *
AXXONN – Drone Study 1 [Below The Dead Ones] (Bedroom Suck Records) *
Autechre – Treale [Oversteps] (Warp)
Sub Bass Snarl deejay set recorded live at Index 2010-03-13 (excerpt) *
DJ Hvad – Hvad Efterspil [Hvad Raga 1] (Syg Nok Records)
DJ Hvad – Allblackslund Tamil Maharajan [Hvad Raga 1] (Syg Nok Records)
DJ Hvad – Hvad Clean Acha [Hvad Raga 1] (Syg Nok Records)
DJ Hvad – Syntezieser Mellemspil [Hvad Raga 1] (Syg Nok Records)
DJ Hvad – Hvad Hvor Du Henne Keith [Hvad Raga 1] (Syg Nok Records)
King Midas Sound – Meltdown [Waiting For You] (Hyperdub)
Storytellers – Sorrows (Robbing Hood Remix) [unreleased] (demo)

* = Australian Track

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 15 March 2010 is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Sinweldi-Front Sonore et les Chevaliers de l’Ordre Noir – s/t (La Caverne du Dragon)

2010-03-15T22:03:07Z

Sinweldi’s third album in the space of twelve months is a collection drawn from his first two albums, Is Europe Dying? and L’Homme au Coeur de Fer, with some remixes, compilation tracks and previously unreleased songs thrown in also. As such, and including collaborations with prime movers such as Front Sonore and Art Abscons, this is very much a snapshot of the nexus where neofolk, martial industrial and dark electronic pop meet. Despite being a musical grab-bag, it has the cohesion and purpose of a composed album.

‘Mesz’ (Mitteleuropaische Sommerzeit?) opens the album with the sound of running water, restrained electric guitar, synth watercolours and beautiful sung and spoken word vocals from guest Agnese P. ‘The True Color [sic] of the Wind’ (as remixed by Gabe Unruh) is perhaps the highlight of the album – monolithic phased synth lines, chattering high-end synth parts, ominous drum rolls and sneering vocals containing a mix of defiance and anxiety.

‘Sommes nous reellement devenu plus heureux’ is a simple but effective blend of acoustic and electric guitars, filter-sweep synth sounds, and heartfelt vocals, with sampled cinema dialogue over the end. ‘All the Things You Should Never Do’ seems to carry an echo of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ with its similar looping chord sequence, bass synth drones and string synth parts. ‘Love in Time of War’ is a killer blend of EQ-morphing string synth, thick bass drones, almost Italo-house piano, and club-friendly beats, all topped off with Sinweldi’s heavily ironic vocals.

Available for free download from La Caverne du Dragon here.

Ewan Burke

Sinweldi-Front Sonore et les Chevaliers de l’Ordre Noir – s/t (La Caverne du Dragon) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Delicate Noise – Filmezza (Lens Records)

2010-03-12T22:57:29Z

Opening with a track of wonked out scale modulations, which in another time would be termed psychedelic, Delicate Noise introduces Filmezza. Then brashly into handclaps, child wonder at butterflys, synth circular brightness and laid back drum patterns. ‘Butterfly envy’, so described, entertains the childs relation with natural beauty to be that of wonder and beauty, while reviewing the interplay as a psych state laced with a seed of perdition. These ideas are continued in Roundlake park with interactions with environments being the order of the day, lush waterscapes and ambient park recordings hang on strings and drum patterns.

Mark Andrushko makes much of the ‘warmth’ of vintage synths, and plays the psych edge up, with a hint of menace, at the edge. A kind of tripped out Hitchcock of electronica presenting darkly bright melodies, even in ‘Pheremone’ an echo of children’s rhymes undercut the nostalgia with hushed scattered murmurs of a child’s sinister collusion. Yet I listen to the construction of the sinister.

Also there are just genuinely interesting experiments, ‘Deluxer’, contains resonant chimes and staccato typewriter beats. Akin to telephone static and interrupts, sampled and tooled up into shapely slaps in the face, deftly changing pace to undermine your expectations.

It is only the loose weave of sample and instrument that arrests development in this album. Often it sounds as if Andrushko plays to and around the samples. ‘Beware of digital children’, the albums highpoint of the child’s voice, as ambivalent wonder/sinister, has moments of presenting itself as a gimmick. This works against the sophistication of the construction even though it continues an underlying theme of the album. This quibble aside Filemezza is definitely a fine ambient electronica album with the residue of Boards of Canada listening dripping from it and steeped with psyched out glitch laden atmosphere.

Innerversitysound

Delicate Noise – Filmezza (Lens Records) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Mr Cloudy – Sensitive Crop (Rednetic)

2010-03-16T22:55:53Z

As Mr Cloudy, Russian techno producer Sergey Barkalov has previously released tracks on netlabels such as Deepindub and Kyoto_Digital, and this latest contribution to Rednetic’s ultra-limited techno-oriented 3” CDR series follows on the heels of his recent Different Lives remix collection for Shoreless Recordings. ‘Excursion’ opens proceedings by throwing the listener straight down into cavernous dub-techno as dry, sharp-focus snares and ticking hi-hats trace a percussive outline around vast, echoing dubbed out tones and ratcheting cut-up rhythmic fragments, in an inspired offering that owes more than a bit to Rhythm & Sound’s sculpted dub-techno template.

‘Therefrom’ meanwhile rouses the mood out of its smoked out fugue, ushering in buzzing, reverberating dancehall-inflected synths as rattling snares inject some additional dancefloor swing, before ‘Datura’ sees Barkalov removing the beats entirely, in favour of an ambient glide through blissful synth washes and distantly rumbling sub-bass grooves that manages to introduce just the right hint of unease at its very edges. Lastly, ‘Dry Breakfasts’ fuses scattered, rattling broken techno rhythms and fractured synth stabs to a heartbeat-like bass pulse, gradually reducing them into a ricocheting rhythmic wash with some judicious use of dub delay. While there are perhaps few surprises to be found here, this certainly sees Mr Cloudy offering up an impressive contribution to Rednetic’s characteristically strong 3” CDR series.

Chris Downton

Mr Cloudy – Sensitive Crop (Rednetic) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Denim Owl – The Dream Pocket (Special Award)

2010-03-11T00:10:56Z

Melbourne-based band Denim Owl represents the alternate guise of Janita Foley and Aleks Bryant of Aleks and The Ramps fame and sees them veering away from the indie rock stylings of their ‘main’ group, instead venturing out into dreamy downtempo pop coloured with the haze of reverb and vintage keyboards/electronics. This debut five track EP on Dan Lewis’ Special Award label represents their first recorded output, following their national tour last November as support to Maximo Park. From the very outset here, there’s certainly an emphasis on textural lushness whether in the case of Foley’s vocals, which come coated with an almost Hope Sandoval-esque level of gauzy reverb, or in the case of the ‘kitchen sink’ approach to instrumentation, which sees kalimba and even a choir making an appearance on the delicate, Spanish guitar-tinged ‘Kitten Gloves.’

Opening track ‘Fantasy Dog Sled With A Man’s Head’ certainly aptly sets the scene, with retro clicking drum machines providing a backdrop for Foley’s gauzy chanteuse tones, before live drums arrive to take things off in a far more jaunty pop direction that calls to mind one of Stereolab’s synth-drenched skiffle-pop explorations. Elsewhere, ‘Chattering Face (When The Hammock Hits Quartz)’ sees banjos lurking alongside clicking rhythms and swelling organ tones in what’s easily this EP’s most beautifully understated moment, providing a slight slowcore bluesgrass-y edge to Foley’s vocal that melts perfectly into ‘Red Leather’s collision of ebbing analogue keys, strummed melancholic guitars and yearning lyrics. An impressive debut EP that’s well worth exploring.

Chris Downton

Denim Owl – The Dream Pocket (Special Award) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Tiago Sousa and João Correia – Insomnia (Humming Conch)

2010-03-10T04:27:39Z

Strange contrasts abound on this recording by Portugese pianist and composer Tiago Sousa, founder of the now-defunct Merzbau label, and drummer Joao Correira. Mastered by digital perfectionist Taylor Deupree, ‘Insonia’ nonetheless retains a slapdash bedroom aesthetic, and the music itself veers from jangly post-rock through wispy neo-classical and even flamenco, without raising too many eyebrows. Correira favours a rattly pots and pans approach; Sousa also plays guitar and organ, and they’re joined on a few tracks by Ricardo Ribeiro on clarinet.

This range of styles is apparent on opening ‘Movimento’, as Sousa moves from patient block chords on piano then onto Spanish guitar flurries, before the drums start kicking us into Chicago territory. ‘Pendulo’ explores pretty melodic phrases reminiscent of Sakamoto’s vision of Satie, while ‘Foula Cadouca’ interrupts the introductory hymn-like dirge with pacy Middle Eastern clarinet runs. The rich organ throb which underlies final ‘Surrealismo Impressionista’ is particularly efffective, with the wind trio lazily improvising over the top like an amateur version of The Necks. Here, Sousa and Correira’s restless approach shows promise, but it generally proves frustrating, it being difficult to catch their fleeting, or fleet-footed, ideas.

Joshua Meggitt

Tiago Sousa and João Correia – Insomnia (Humming Conch) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Ninca Leece – There Is No One Else When I Lay Down And Dream (Bureau B/Inertia)

2010-03-10T02:18:07Z

There Is No One Else When I Lay Down And Dream is the type of understated album that gently ingrains itself into your subconscious in a manner that I thoroughly enjoy. Yes, there’s pop hooks and interesting production, but ultimately its the rhythmic sense that filters into physical consciousness, bypassing the mind to work directly on the nervous system, like good dance music always does.

Ninca Leece is originally French but now resides in Germany via The Netherlands. Her subtly accented vocals and delivery bring to mind obvious forebears such as Björk (her penchant for elaborate costume in performance reinforcing this link), but the music lies elsewhere. Leece utilises the timbres of German minimalist techno and deep house, but with a variety of light and shade creating a more dynamic mood befitting song-based structures. This tends to stray towards the more overground end of the spectrum like Booka Shade or lesser known luminaries like Pupkullies and Rebecca. So expect to hear lots of tiny shards of sound standing in the place of hi-hats and snares, glitched electronic fragments creating syncopation, repetitive, deep basslines and stray synth whines floating overhead. And, above all, a 4/4 kick pulse which is never obnoxious, but constantly moving. Over the course of 50 odd minutes, the effect is to create a gently pulsing ebb to wash around you and carry you along.

Lyrically, Leece doesn’t stray too far from the sensual, befitting the history of this type of music. “When I touch your skin again/I disappear, disappear/When I smell your skin gain/I surrender, surrender”, she coos in ‘Division’. It’s typical of the entire album and, admittedly, sounds trite on paper. But Leece’s delivery never strays into the tacky, so the lyrics become a reinforcement of the brooding of the music, not a distraction. This is merely heightened when she reverts to her native French on tracks like ‘The Beast’ and ‘Aseptique’. Her gently glitched cover of The Cure’s ‘Lovesong’ fits in perfectly and gives an idea of the musical and lyrical obsessions Leece mines in her own songs.

There Is No One Else When I Lay Down And Dream is not going to break wide open the possibilities for the future of music, but it doesn’t aim to do so. But it does aim to use established formats in order to move you, and does so very successfully, with joyful playfulness.

Adrian Elmer

Ninca Leece – There Is No One Else When I Lay Down And Dream (Bureau B/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Raoul Sinier – Tremens Industry (Ad Noiseam)

2010-03-10T04:26:10Z

It’s been scarcely a year since Parisian electronic producer / visual artist Raoul Sinier released his Brain Kitchen album and its accompanying Huge Samurai Radish remix collection on Ad Noiseam, but this follow-up Tremens Industry, his fourth album in total, represents a considerably different proposition. While Brain Kitchen saw Sinier out to scramble the listener’s synapses with some of his most complex and highly-edited productions to date, the thirteen tracks on Tremens Industry see him aiming more towards constructing actual ’songs’, with the aid of his self-constructed guitar (whose construction is documented on the accompanying DVD), drums and other live instrumentation. It’s an approach that results in a refreshing new level of warmth and accessibility, where Sinier’s previous works have sometimes been more cold and forebidding, and indeed all of the tracks collected here carry an emotional tone to them often missing amongst Brain Kitchen’s digital hyper-dexterity.

After opening track ‘Overthoughts’ sees Sinier venturing out towards Vangelis-esque territory with an epic-sounding synth overture that continually builds amidst myriad layers of arpeggios, ‘The Hole’ offers a perfect introduction to his newfound sonic aesthetic, with Sinier’s own vocals providing a fitting counterpoint to the crashing live breaks and cinematic keyboard arrangements that spiral beneath – indeed, it’s easily one of the most impressive moments to be found here. Elsewhere, ‘List Of Things’ harks back to Sinier’s more hiphop-centred ‘Wxfdswxc2′ album with its rhythmic base of cut-up MC samples, but in this case things take on a far more gothy flavour as Sinier counts of a list of dark-sounding items amidst funereal organ tones. That said however, Sinier’s increased emphasis on emotional progressions occasionally proves to be something of a two-edged sword here – while the likes of ‘Alternative Rush’ and ‘Boxes’ see him crafting epic, heart-swelling synthetic landscapes in a similar vein to Plaid, there’s a frequent sense of tension being generated with little pay-off or real resolution. Perhaps though, that’s just what Sinier wants, and with a collection this sonically impressive, he’s probably entitled to it. The accompanying DVD is certainly no less tasty, containing over two hours worth of Sinier’s excellent and frequently disturbing animations, as well as several documentaries.

Chris Downton

Raoul Sinier – Tremens Industry (Ad Noiseam) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

“Latter Lady Day” International Working Women’s Day Special – Extended Playlist 080310 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM

2010-03-09T12:12:19Z

This week we celebrate International Working Women’s Day with a cavalcade of fab female electronic artists, aided and abetted by sister singers from farther flung walks of musical life.

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More themes for future shows, please, or feedback or indecent proposals, at your leisure . . . to extendedplay@2ser.com .
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# > Australian artist or release
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Tartit – Tihar Bayatin
(“The Festival In The Desert” compilation – 2003, Triban Union)

Björk – Pearl
(“The Music From Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9” – 2005, One Little Indian)

Kate Bush – Sat In Your Lap
(“The Dreaming” – 1982, EMI)

The Creatures – But Not Them (John Peel 10/2/81)
(“At The BBC” 3xCD+DVD compilation – 2008, Polydor) (recorded 1981)

Xmal Deutschland – Qual
(“Fetisch” – 1983, 4AD)

Ideal – Eiszeit
(“Der Ernst des Lebens” – 1981, WEA)

Danielle Dax – The Spoil Factor
(“Jesus Egg That Wept” – 1984, Awesome/Biter Of Thorpe)

Juana Molina – Sonamos
(“Segundo” – 2000, Domino)

Julia Holter – Measure What More
(“4 Women No Cry: Vol. 3” compilation – 2008, Monika)

Romica Puceanu & The Gore Brothers – Inima Suparacioasa
(“Sounds From A Bygone Age. Vol 2” – 2006, Asphalt Tango) (recorded 1960s)

Dead Can Dance – Carnival Of Light
(“Garden Of The Arcane Delights” 12inchEP – 1984, 4AD) #

Buffalo Daughter – Pshychic A-Go-Go
(“Pshychic” – 2003, V2)

Kevin Blechdom – Da Barbershop
(“Your Butt E.P.” mini-album – 2002, Dudini)

Amanda Stewart – Postiche
(“I/T Selected Poems” CD+book – 1998, split) (recorded 1993) #

Chrystal Belle Scrodd – Riding the Red Rag
(“Belle de Jour” – 1986, United Dairies)

The Slits – Love und Romance
(“Cut” – 1979, Island)

Liliput – Türk
(“Liliput” 2xCD – 2001, Kill Rock Stars) (recorded live 1980)

Trio Bulgarka – Sedyankata ye na razvala
(“The Forest Is Crying (Lament for Indje Voivode)” – 1988, Hannibal)

Sorrow – Loki And Evil
(“Under The Yew Possessed” – 1993, Piski Disk)

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# > Australian artist or release
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Do you like our playlists?
>Produce your own music?
>>Send us your demos:
ollo/Extended Play
PO Box 292
Enmore NSW 2042
Australia

“Latter Lady Day” International Working Women’s Day Special – Extended Playlist 080310 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Badawi – El Topo (Index)

2010-03-07T11:56:25Z

New release on Badawi’s own new Index imprint, this 12” is Raz Mesinai’s finest work to date, wonderfully gloomy, repetitious synth stabs, stripped down percussion, and subtle dubbed out techno grooves. El Topo takes this and runs with it, stripping everything back to almost nothing before bringing everything back together. “DstryPrfts” gets the remix treatment from the mammoth Shackleton, Skull Disco may be dead, but the Shackleton vision of percussive mesmerism continues. Shackleton works again with vocalist and modern day poet Vengeance Tenfold, to add an apocalypse to the gloom, there seems to be something so fitting about the spoken tones of Vengeance and the stripped down rhythms of Shackleton’s interpretation of the original, deep. “Stem1” is a 1 minute 40 second snippet of sound, a taster of things to come maybe?

Raz Mesinai has always done things a little differently, and teaming up with Shackleton on this 12” vinyl release is a stroke of genius, when so many dubstep producers seem to be following a stale recipe for more of the same, Badawi serve up something fresh, and very very deep.

Wayne Stronell

Badawi – El Topo (Index) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Alice Russell – Pot Of Gold Remixes (Pod/Inertia)

2010-03-08T06:08:59Z

Alice Russell can belt out a tune, she has one of those modern day classic soul voices, a voice that connects with most people, that lifts your soul, and puts a smile on your face. After the success of 2008’s Pot Of Gold, it seems obligatory these days to release a collection of remixes, but remix collections are often problematic, especially double disc compilations, such as this. Maintaining a consistency with the style, and quality of the remixes is often hard to achieve.

Spread over two discs, Pot Of Gold Remixes contains remixes by Kidkanevil, DJ Vadim, Mr Scruff, Mocean Worker, Kid Gusto, Herma Puma, Emika, Laura J Martin, Clonious, Lilste, J-Boogie, Shawn Lee, Captain Planet, Llorca, Dusty, Ohmega Watts, ZNTN, Ticklah, DJ Day & Clutchy Hopkins, Yellowtail, The Heavy, and GRC.

Mr Scruff’s remix of “Living The Life Of A Dreamer” is somewhat subdued for this producer, but the subtle latin rhythms work well, while Kid Gusto’s more upfront latin rhythms on “Universe” make for a very catchy tune. Herma Puma, a relative unknown, come across like a modern day Fila Brazillia with their version of “Two Steps”, while J-Boogie injects his funk jazz stylings into “Got The Hunger?”. Shawn Lee adds some smooth orchestrated funk into “Two Steps”, and Dusty adds his catchy latin shuffle to “Universe”. Ohmega Watts lays down a harder edge beat with guitar hook on “Two Steps”, as does Ticklah on “Got The Hunger?”, but with a subtler more laid back approach. The DJ Day meets Clutchy Hopkins remix of “All Alone” is one of the highlights, infectious vibes, brroding break beats, warm keys and sweet strings. The Heavy do a great job of “Got A Hunger?”, keeping the drums hard but sparse, with Stevie Wonder style keys.

Even with the same tracks remixed more than once, the differing styles, and the varied quality of remixes, Alice Russell’s voice still shines through, there are a number of remixes here that would suit different tastes, but to purchase a double CD on the strengths of these I am unsure. With Alice Russell, and even with the remixes here, when it’s good, it’s very good.

Wayne Stronell

Alice Russell – Pot Of Gold Remixes (Pod/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Furesshu – Untitled 12” (Project Squared)

2010-03-07T11:50:19Z

The second 12” vinyl from new dubstep label and Project Mooncircle offshoot Project Squared, run by Paul Cooper. What we have here delves more into the dub techno template, and where the debut release mirrored much Detroit influence, this 12” shows more of an influence with the Berlin dub techno scene, and why wouldn’t it, as Furesshu has previously released on Echodub.

Where I praised the first 12” for its mastery of the slow build, “Unknown” shows a similar dynamic, 11 minutes of building, mesmerizing stripped back techno, where spatial sounds are given room to breath, subtle changes building tension. “1993” draws its influence from closer to home, still deep, but having more akin with the early UK techno of Warp Records and acts like Redcell, an early break beat template carrying the track nicely. “Horizons” remains in the territory of dub techno, but taking a more distinctive dubstep vibe, allowing the half-step to slow things, allowing washes of synth pads, rolling bass, and growling electronics to creep through.

The first two releases have been a fine start, and we have not been barraged with releases, showing Project Squared seem to be concentrating on quality, and not quantity.

Wayne Stronell

Furesshu – Untitled 12” (Project Squared) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Free The Robots – Ctrl Alt Delete (Alpha Pup Records)

2010-03-07T11:49:09Z

Its been a long time coming, but the debut album for Free The Robots released on Alpha Pup Records is finally upon us. Initially started as a side project by Chris Alfaro in 2003, a couple of EP’s, free internet teasers, and a split 7” with The Gaslamp Killer, we are finally bombarded with some mind-warping electronics, fuzzed out psychedelia peppered with blistering hip hop beats, reinstating his position at the forefront of the L.A. beat scene, alongside The Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus, Ras G, Nosaj Thing and all that have played at the late night Low End Theory Club.

Free The Robots mix up dusty samples with crazed synths, live instrumentation and a futuristic ideology that looks back to many influences, yet manages push boundaries of jazz and psychedelia beyond the now. Modern jazz stylings mix with a dubstep swagger, wonky Dilla inflected beats mesh with psychedelic drums and melodies, the raw experimentation of Free The Robots hip hop beat science seems to know no bounds. Featuring Ikey Owens from Mars Volta on “The Eye”, pushing aside the purely electronic psychedelics for a traditional take with drums, guitars and screaming organ, showing the level of experimentation that sits comfortably with Free The Robots. Like many in the L.A. scene, influences of Turkish psychedelic rock seem to be a mainstay, and just as The Gaslamp Killer and Gonjasufi before them, “Turkish Voodoo” shows us the Free The Robots slant on a resurrected, underrated period of psychedelic rock Havana.

Ctrl Alt Delete is a blistering record of intense synthesizer wizardry, but along the way it has absorbed so much more than just another electronic album, the influences are varied, and the result would please many a fan in varying genres, from dubstep, grime, hip hop and wonky abstract beat science. Highly recommended.

Wayne Stronell

Free The Robots – Ctrl Alt Delete (Alpha Pup Records) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Joe Kickass – Let Me Introduce EP (Project Mooncircle)

2010-03-07T06:22:02Z

Free stuff is always good, but when it comes from www.projectmooncircle.com, you know you have to snap it up, it is bound to be quality.

I didn’t know what to expect from this one, a new name for me, but after numerous listens its clear that Joe Kickass wants to go back to an era when hip hop was fresh and fun, the days of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, conscious flows over party vibes. Joe Kickass has achieved just that, a maturity as an MC as if he has been doing this for two decades, injecting an uplifting party vibe to the music that takes me back to those fine old-school days. A new-school cat pining for the old-school days, getting back to basics, producing most of the tracks himself, even supplying the fantastic illustrations.

“Shirlyn” rides on a fine drum break, subtle vibes underpin the rhythm to allow the vocal to float above all, while “Joe Goes Africa” uses great African rhythms to great effect. All the six tracks show a side of what Joe Kickass is trying to achieve, raw, gritty and drenched with soul and jazz influences. Let Me Introduce, an introduction to the man, before the full length album release later in the year, download this EP now, you won’t regret it.

Wayne Stronell

Joe Kickass – Let Me Introduce EP (Project Mooncircle) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Herzog – First Summer And The Running Dream (Resting Bell)

2010-03-07T06:20:57Z

The Resting Bell label from Berlin reminds me of the single minded approach to music of other labels such as Static Caravan and Awkward Silence, single minded in that the music is what matters, originality in music, music not for the mainstream, but music that can be enjoyed by all, if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon it.

First Summer And The Running Dream contains five tracks, quite different to previous work, the songs here are more droning, utilizing slight distortion, where layered sounds harmonize softly and sublimely, creating a laid-back mood, but with a noise that increases through the tracks, giving his image of winter, watching raindrops on the window, and wind in your hair.

I like the way this release starts off sweet, promising to sooth from the start, but the distortion sets in subtly, slowly engulfing each wash of sound, before the final track “Lately I’ve Been Dreaming Of Drinking Sound From A Fountain” brings the noise in on itself, engulfing all. Before you know it, you realise the noise has had a soothing effect after all.

I think I need to investigate this label some more, www.restingbell.net.

Wayne Stronell

Herzog – First Summer And The Running Dream (Resting Bell) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Jonny Trunk – Jonny Trunk’s Scrapbook (Trunk/Inertia)

2010-03-07T06:20:28Z

Jonny Trunk is a modern plunderer, a man who has obsessively collected sounds from hundreds of music libraries over the years, and this album is a distillation of some of those ideas, as Jonny puts it, “those tracks that are barely still alive”. He wants us to think this all about him, but he would be quite happy for us to drop the ‘S’ in the title, and call this Crapbook. My guess is that this is in fact the Jonny Trunk humour, as Scrapbook is a rather wonderful collection of musical sketches, vignettes, mock-ups, unfinished musical passages just waiting for the right visuals.

This has to be the definition of a modern day library record, full of ‘moods’, music that can stand up on its own, but at the same time is crying out for some b-grade experimental cinema to add that last shot of life. Jonny is an obvious obsessive, he’s plundered and mined so many different styles from funk, and jazz, and he must have listened to every soundtrack ever composed, the detail in the tracks prove he is knowledgeable. Jonny Trunk uses a fair dose of exotica to elevate these songs to be more than just sketches, and this lightness used in conjunction to darker sounds of looped drum breaks and early synthesizers brooding and competing for space, is what makes this album a joy to listen to, and oh how fine it would be to have a visual accompaniment. Mesmerising.

As the footnote reads on the CD, go to www.trunkrecords.com and look at pictures, read stories and buy super things.

Wayne Stronell

Jonny Trunk – Jonny Trunk’s Scrapbook (Trunk/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Richmond LaMarr – Lights (Lopsided)

2010-03-07T06:19:44Z

What a great little EP Lights is, having been described in the press of possessing the spirit of Charlie Parker, a strange comparison when you’ve heard the music, but there are reference points there.

Warped electronic infused jazz sketches, would be an apt way to describe the music contained. Very DIY in construction, it has a lo-fi feel, but a crisp production, each electronic tone polished to shine on its own, but gel with those around it. Melbourne’s Richmond LaMarr rambles over the top of the electric jazz soundtrack, using his voice for effect, rather than to convey a message, interspersed with snippets of spoken word and vocal hooks from the records sampled. This reminds me of the sheer sampleology of bands like The Avalanches, when I first saw them live I was astounded by the palette of sound, the influences they draw from, and LaMarr achieves a similar thing, albeit fed through an electronic shredder.

Fun, creative and quirky, my main question remains, why haven’t I heard of Richmond LaMarr before this? Listen at http://richmondlamarr.vox.com/.

Wayne Stronell

Richmond LaMarr – Lights (Lopsided) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.