Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Eyes – Night Eyes (Seed)

2009-07-05T06:51:18Z

Iowa-based electronic / alt-pop / No Wave four-piece Eyes have already developed a reputation for impressive live shows, having provided tour support over the last couple of years to the likes of Health and Dan Deacon. This debut album from Eyes ‘Night Eyes’ arrives in the wake of over 30 different home-recorded lo-fi projects from the band, and sees the quartet fashioning a curiously accessible fusion of experimental art rock, punk-funk grooves, raucous vocals and electro elements that at times calls to mind everything from The Rapture to Animal Collective. If the opening ‘Stonehenge – Intro’ suggests a difficult listen ahead with its chaotic collage of distorted vocals, clattering rhythms and disorienting layers of samples, ‘There You Go’ offers up a far easier listen, with the collision of dry electro kickdrums and swirling free-jazz horns beneath frontman William Harris’ wide-eyed vocals particularly calling to mind the aforementioned Animal Collective’s ‘Summertime Clothes.’ By comparison, the tense jerky jazz-rock grooves and nervous white funk vocals that inhabit ‘Silver Plateau’ suggest perhaps a closer kinship to !!! or Rapture frontman Luke Jenner’s anxious yelp, a stylistic trajectory that’s maintained by the swirling mutant Stax / Motown grooves of ‘Clown Lady’ and ‘Catch A Charge’s acceleration into streamlined, Chicago house-fuelled punk-funk. While there’s certainly more than a fair quotient of dancefloor-friendly material on offer here however, there’s still plenty of crazed art-noise here to startle the unwary – see the downright tweaked-out slow jazz-rock reworking of James Stewart’s ‘Worry Boy’ and ‘Mister Ssippi’s eccentric banjo and tambourine hoedown. Yes, it’s suitably bizarre stuff, but nothing that’ll freak out those weaned on the similarly dance-flirtatious likes of Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance…with the CD pressing limited to just 500 copies, you’ll want to move fast though.

Adjabel: A Caribbean Journey – Racine 4 (Iris/ Select Audio Visual)

2009-07-04T14:54:47Z

The cover screams LAME in big loud letters, yet it’s a welcome relief to discover that the Haitian influenced percussion music contained inside more than transcends the ill thought out cover art. It’s the work of Atissou Loko a master of the Haitian tambour (drum), who mixes African, Caribbean, jazz, salsa, even hip hop influences in this project who’s name comes from the Beninese land of Adja and the Haitian goddess of love, Label. It’s his ensemble’s fourth album since 2000 and it’s incredibly diverse. There’s the ever present hand drums, however also driving sax, electric guitar, more drums and someone mysteriously on ’sounds.’ There’s also various guests (19), particularly vocalists, from the choirs to french speaking African’s, even this incredible English spoken hip hop, on the smoky Brahim, a tune that effortlessly manages to merge R&B and Afro jazz. The percussion flows through this album, less a heartbeat than a driving excited pulse and despite their propensity to demonstrate their skills in multiple areas, they do the kind of laidback Afro Jazz with a rarely seen swagger. The musicians here are clearly pretty skilled and Loko’s fusion of not just multiple genres, but also the traditional and contemporary (something often destined for failure) is really quite unique and very inventive – even if some of the vocalists do tend to tread some dangerous (read corny) territory when they move into English. There’s a restlessness to his tunes, like he has a low attention span and needs to keep things moving and changing, and as a result the tunes end up being quite complex, without forgoing their groove, energy or feel. The thing about Haitian drums is that it’s less about the boom and more about the impact, the sound of flesh on hide, which tends to have a rather soft feel, which means that tunes can remain low key whilst Loko can go to town. It’s a curious album, there’s elements of genius, of cringe and everything in between. There’s one thing though that no one could dispute, Loko plays a mean drum and this album is worth checking out for this alone.

Bob Baker Fish

Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band – Bird Head Son (Naive/ Select Audio Visual)

2009-07-04T14:55:47Z

The first thing that hits you is the funk, the throbbing urban grooves, taut, almost militant 70’s funk that drifts into the stirring power of spiritual and free jazz, even Afrobeat or bizarrely enough Calypso music. And then we meet Anthony Joseph. He is a poet. But you wouldn’t know it. He comes across like a New Orleans preacher, loud, proud, rousing, over the sweat and the sin of the music. His delivery is somewhere between Martin Luther King Jnr and Jimi Hendrix, these incredibly vivid spiritual street stories that build and swell with the music. Make no mistake he’s not thumbing earnestly through a dog eared excercise book, he’ll wail and sing, writhe and live the music. These are songs, not poetry put to music, where the music can just flow on instrumentally for long periods before Joseph will pop up with his unique wordplays. Jospeh is Trinidadian, based England, he even lectures in creative writing there, though it’s his super cool 7 piece band with horns, hand drums, wah guitar, organs and shakers that really takes this out of the classroom. They’ve really transcended the spoken word medium here, creating the kind of obscure rare groove record that crate diggers would go mad for if it was made thirty five years ago, like it sounds like it should have.

Bob Baker Fish

Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey/ Spunk)

2009-07-04T14:59:22Z

Chicago trail blazing quintet Tortoise have a unique way of making the listener feel stupid. It comes with their seeming inability to stick with a consistent sound from album to album. At one time, perhaps around Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) they seemed to be the quintessential post rock band, like the term had been constructed for them alone. And whilst the copyists copied their sounds and made the label ‘post rock’ a term of unimaginative derision, Tortoise moved on. It’s when you’re greeted with a new Tortoise album you’re never quite sure, the newness gets you, part of you want the triumphs of previous albums re arranged and presented new. But they don’t do that. All you get are vague hints – if you’re lucky. Each album feels like year zero, Tabula Rasa with the odd feeling of de ja vu.

The first thing you notice about their sixth album, Beacons of Ancestorship, is that the sound is big, the bottom end punches, the twin percussion attack is taut and very present in the mix. Yet John McEntire’s production work has always been very clean and crisp, and being a drummer, he’s always had an ear to the rhythms. The second thing you notice are the synths. They’re big, textural, almost furry, aligning themselves and twisting in and out of the motorik rhythms. It’s an austere album, as if the hints of tenderness or even melancholy from previous outings have been devoured and we’re left with the machine, a mechanical organism pumping out this glacial genius. Innovative skilled musicians combined with sublime production skills often equal the emotionless wank of jazz fusion, and there’s no doubting that Tortoise do posses an element of this. It’s just that their wankery is so damn interesting, complex and at times even endearing.

It’s not until the seventh track The Fall of Seven Diamonds that we finally hear a recipe that we’ve heard before, guitarist Jeff Parker’s reassuring twang a laid-back spaghetti western noodle, the first concession to the past and it’s like at this moment they took a deep breath, unchecked their emotions and decided for the remainder of the album to let elements of their back catalogue merge with the relentless Krautrock percussion and synth blast of the previous pieces. McEntire’s production is almost like another band member, sounds are abstracted, blown out, peaking, buzzing and wrong, yet add a further layer of complexity (and interest) to the tunes. Here is a band attacking, poking holes in their music from numerous directions. There is a scientific element of chin stroking to the music, yet Tortoise have always had that, even on their crazier rock outs from previous albums. Beacons of Ancestorship is no different. It’s the sound of the future through a prism of the past and the first track here the minimal electro prog rock out High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In will blow your brains out. Once you hear it you will understand. It may have been five years but Tortoise are back and like always the rest of us will follow.

Bob Baker Fish

Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue (Warp/Inertia)

2009-07-02T12:08:45Z

Whilst the recycling aspects of post-modernism can leads to lots of lazy garbage, in the right hands, such as those of one Stephen James Wilkinson, the results can be simply dazzling. Holed up in his studio in Wolverhampton, England, Wilkinson has made a handful of releases for Mush Records and now joins Warp’s journey from iconic 90s electronica into kaleidoscopes of indie-electronic offshoots, with this album. And it comes out only 3 months after his latest Mush release – that the quality control is so high with that kind of output rate is quite remarkable.

It really is a grab bag of ideas. At different times, bursts of pastoral English psychedelia of the late 60s, 70s funk and disco, crunchy chiptunes, slick R’n'B, glitchy electronica, West Coast 70s cool, abstract hiphop and folktronica can all be heard. But what holds it all together is a gauzy, semi-hauntological haze blanketing everything. Like the drum loops in ‘Jealous Of Roses’ which sound like they’re coming from the club next door while the guitar and vocals are being recorded echoing around the bathroom of this one. Or the opening guitar of ‘Cry! Baby!’ resolutely lo-fi before the slightly of kilter rhythms spread across the stereo spectrum to underpin the 60s folksy lead guitars and keys, only for bursts of distorted sub-bass to try and grab a foothold. Or ‘Sugarette’s reverb drowned synth washes which frame 8-bit blips and staccato analogue bass synth noodlings. Beautiful stuff.

When I read back through those descriptions, it makes it sound like a sprawling mess. But it most definitely isn’t. The aforementioned use of post-modern recycling is used here not as pastiche, but as elements to be bent into the shapes that Bibio desires. Yes, they remind you of other things, but they are never merely a symbol of those other things, they are building blocks which are used to create a new, cohesive whole. Ambivalence Avenue may be a title trying to play it cool, but Wilkinson sounds excited by the possibilities of music from all over, and the results are themselves supremely exciting.

Adrian Elmer

Leonel Castillo – El Nino (Greener)

2009-07-02T12:07:43Z

The psychedelic techno produced and championed by the likes of Donatto Dozzy and Cio D’or is fast becoming one of the most influential sounds in (underground) dance music. Informed by the heavier strains of post-Basic Channel dub techno and the linearity of trance, this ‘headfuck techno’, as the blogs put it, delights in long, slowly evolving tracks slotted into long, tightly controlled DJ sets. This 12″ by Argentinian mountain dwelling recluse Leonel Castillo adheres to this structure, at least in part, whilst injecting a subtle touch of Cadenza-esque swing.

It’s the dark yet kooky title track that most captivates, ten-minutes of warped clanging and dank reverberation, wrapped around a warped passage of German speech by Der Himmer über Berlin. This functions like vocals in Thomas Brinkmann, looped into a rhythmic device (particularly effective to those not understanding German), chunks ricocheting off into delayed abstractions, with the sung nursery-rhyme section particularly disorienting. ‘Luvia de Estrellas’ is more straightforward, tinny arpeggios morphing into bounding synth stabs, with a twinkling break like Matthew Johnson. Lucas Mari remixes both, available digital-only, turning the former into droning ambience, and the latter into staggered breakbeat, but neither match the hypnotic power of the originals.

Joshua Meggitt

Chihei Hatakeyama – Saunter (Room 40)

2009-07-01T04:07:23Z

For all of Brisbane label Room 40’s buy-on-sight quality control it’s almost impossible to pin them down to a particular sound. Most releases however lie somewhere between the extremes of free-improv-chaos and carefully constructed aural bliss, with their latest, the aptly titled ‘Saunter’ by Tokyo-based laptopper Chihei Hatakeyama, arguably the most shamelessly beautiful recording the label has yet released. In approachability it tops even DJ Olive’s ambient works ‘Sleep’ and ‘Triage’, which challenged through duration and limited dynamic range; the six perfectly formed pieces which comprise ‘Saunter’, evoking ‘the transition from autumn to winter’ and reflecting Hatakeyama’s immersion in new domestic surroundings, are as attractive as these intended themes sound.

‘Saunter’ proceeds similarly to Hatakeyama’s 2006 debut ‘Minima Moralia’ for Kranky – gently wavering sine tones immersed in hazy webs of treated acoustic sounds and field recordings – with a less hurried pace, and a greater degree of developmental coherence. Each track follows a standard trajectory, loose, sparse patterns shifting and splitting into dense and more active arrangements, governed by an elusive yet detectable logic which moulds these pieces into complete and polished wholes. In ‘Treads Echoing Far Away From Sea Coast’, warm digital streams shimmer and fold, each tone gradually becoming clearer, cleaner, and more independent. Brief piano lines lie buried within ‘The Room in Past’, creeping to the surface, both raw and treated, before twisting completely into hazy threads of electronics. Guitars are treated similarly, their particular resonances more suited to Hatakeyama’s approach: ‘A Stone Inside the Box’ pits lazy runs of acoustic fingerpicking against gritty electric attacks; the closing ‘Landscape on a Hill’ cuts and reverses high-pitched notes, leaving these to slowly collapse into mournful electronic tones reminiscent of Klimek.

Despite running times of up to ten minutes, and a reliance on a restricted tonal pallette, nothing on ‘Saunter’ outstays its welcome. This I would put down to Hatakeyama’s earnest, clear-sighted approach to composition: there is none of the twee faux-naivete that too often affects work produced by his fellow countrymen – Shuta Hasunuma or Takagi Masakatsu, for instance. Consequently ‘Saunter’ is a rich, compelling success.

Joshua Meggitt

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 29 June 2009

2009-06-30T13:42:46Z

The Paradigm Shift is a weekly Monday night radio show presented by Sub Bass Snarl on Sydney radio station 2SER fm 107.3MHz – check the 2SER website for the live web stream!

It airs Monday nights at the time of 730pm for 90 minutes (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

Get in touch to send us your music (320s welcome!) – EMAIL: paradigmshift [AT] 2ser [dot] com

Finally got off my arse and hassled folks for some fresh demos several of which featured in this weeks show.

Pitch Black – 1000 Mile Drift (International Observer Remix) [Rude Mechanicals remixes] (Dubmission)
Royalston – The Sound of the Rain [unreleased] (demo) *
Vic Zee – Shorted [unreleased] (demo) *
Microthol – Sweet Water Tank [Microkosmos] (Trust)
Kromestar – Cybertronik [Blood Clart] (FANTASTIC 3)
Pinch and Moving Ninja – False Flag [False Flag] (Tectonic) *
Kromestar – Technology [Blood Clart] (FANTASTIC 3)
Loopsnake – Is It The Devil In You? [unreleased] (demo) *
Null Object – Morning Star [unreleased] (demo) *
AC23 – Wiggle Ya Bum [unreleased] (demo) *
Boot – Sunset on Mars [unreleased] (demo) *
Joker – Untitled rsn [False Flag] (Tectonic)
Robbing Hood – Oh My God [Stack 'em High, Sell 'em Cheap] (demo)
Conversational Dentures – Scappare Original [IF076] (IF? Records) *
Null Object – Dirk Hartog [unreleased] (demo) *
Audio Werner – Schickago [TRX] (Trapez LTD)

[* = Australian Track]

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 22 June 2009

2009-06-30T13:10:34Z

The Paradigm Shift is a weekly Monday night radio show presented by Sub Bass Snarl on Sydney radio station 2SER fm 107.3MHz – check the 2SER website for the live web stream!

It airs Monday nights at the time of 730pm for 90 minutes (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

Get in touch to send us your music (320s welcome!) – EMAIL: paradigmshift [AT] 2ser [dot] com

Various Production – Bside [Trycycle EP] (VARS022)
Débruit, Om’Mas Keith & Woon – I’m Goin’ Wit You [Various Assets] (Red Bull Music)
Dorian Concept – You Tiresome Thing [When Planets Explode] (Kindred Spirits)
Ras G – Earthly Matters [Brotha From Anotha Planet] (Brainfeeder)
Kode 9 and The Spaceape – Sine of the Dub [Sine of the Dub] (Hyperdub)
Robbing Hood – Speakers Corner [Stack 'em High, Sell 'em Cheap] (demo)
Ital Tek – Massive Error [Massive Error EP] (Planet Mu)
Suckafish P Jones – Straight Outta The Garage [Mr Cloak and Dagger] (self-released) *
Robbing Hood – Oceans Dying [Stack 'em High, Sell 'em Cheap] (demo)
Unkle Ho – Kindergarten [Subterranea] (Elefant Traks) *
Chasm – The Niceness (feat Ozi Batla and Vida Sunshyne) [Beyond The Beat Tape] (Obese) *
Mista Savona – Words and Meditation [Melbourne Meets Kingston] (Elefant Traks) *
Kid Koala – Drunk Trumpet [Xen Cuts disc 3] (Ninja Tune)
Kode 9 and The Spaceape – Curious [Memories of the Future] (Hyperdub)
DJ Fodder – A Quickie Opening Movement [Broken Piano] (If? Records) *
Sietta – Silence [The Come back easy play] (self-released) *
Felix Da Housecat – Kickdrum [Kickdrum] (?)
Astronomy Class – On Your Mind (Unsoundbwoy’s Remix) [Pursuit of Happiness remixes] (Elefant Traks) *

[* = Australian Track]

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 15 June 2009

2009-06-30T12:39:29Z

The Paradigm Shift is a weekly Monday night radio show presented by Sub Bass Snarl on Sydney radio station 2SER fm 107.3MHz – check the 2SER website for the live web stream!

It airs Monday nights at the time of 730pm for 90 minutes (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

Get in touch to send us your music (320s welcome!) – EMAIL: paradigmshift [AT] 2ser [dot] com

Mista Savona with Lisa Dainjah – Land of the Brave [Melbourne Meets Kingston] (Elefant Traks) *
Blak Twang – Red Letters [an england story disc 2] (Soul Jazz)
Aggrovators Meets The Revolutionaries – Bionic Man [At Channel One Studios (Instrumental)] (Greensleeves)
Mista Savona – Words and Meditation [Melbourne Meets Kingston] (Elefant Traks) *
Kode 9 and The Spaceape – Kingstown [Memories of the Future] (Hyperdub)
Lotek Hi-Fi – Ram Dancehall Featuring Earl J [Mixed Blessings] (Big Dada)
Niney & The Soul Syndicate – Dub Long Rastafari [Sledgehammer Dub - Observer Style] (Greensleeves)
Eek-A-Mouse – A Wa Do Dem [Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture] (Soul Jazz)
Bunny Lee – Small Axe Dub [Rasta Dub '76] (Greensleeves)
King Tubby – Invasion [Dub From The Roots] (Greensleeves)
Astronomy Class – Breathless Dub [Pursuit of Happiness] (Elefant Traks) *
Pitch Black – 1000 Mile Drift (International Observer Remix) [Rude Mechanicals remixes] (Dubmission)
Astronomy Class – All I Want (feat. Ash Grunwald) [Pursuit of Happiness] (Elefant Traks) *
Joe Gibbs – God Bless The Children version [The Evolution of Dub, Vol. 1: The Origin of the Species - Dub Serial] (Greensleeves)
King Tubby – Dub From The Roots [Dub From The Roots] (Greensleeves)
Alternahunk – Human Puppy [Alternahunk] (Dual Plover) *
Pimmon – Oh Whollsee [Smudge Another Yesterday] (Preservation) *
Shackleton – The Rope Tightens (Badawi Remix) [Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated By Vandals disc 2] (Skulldisco)

[* = Australian Track]

Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 8 June 2009

2009-06-30T12:20:04Z

The Paradigm Shift is a weekly Monday night radio show presented by Sub Bass Snarl on Sydney radio station 2SER fm 107.3MHz – check the 2SER website for the live web stream!

It airs Monday nights at the time of 730pm for 90 minutes (Australian Eastern Standard Time – GMT+10).

Get in touch to send us your music (320s welcome!) EMAIL: paradigmshift [AT] 2ser [dot] com

Sensient – Glitch Bitch [Gourmet Scavenger] (Omelette) *
Neboysha – Timepass (original mix) [IF078] (If? Records)
The Village Orchestra – I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again (excerpt) [I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again] (High Point Lowlife)
Various Production – Sir [The World Is Gone] (XL)
Alternahunk – Green Tara [Alternahunk] (Dual Plover) *
Pitch Black – South Of The Line (Bluetech Remix) [Rude Mechanicals remixes] (Dubmission)
Andy Stott – Drippin’ [LOVE055] (Modern Love)
Rhythm & Sound Feat. Tikiman – Ruff Way [Showcase] (Burial Mix)
Shackleton – I Want To Eat You [Soundboy Punishments disc 2] (Skulldisco)
Toasty – Angel (Si Begg Remix) [Space and Time] (Hotflush)
Babylon System and Noah D – Examination of Time [ARG015] (Argon)
Pitch Black – 1000 Mile Drift (International Observer Remix) [Rude Mechanicals remixes] (Dubmission)
Astronomy Class – Work [Pursuit of Happiness] (Elefant Traks) *
Conroy Smith – Dangerous [Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture] (Soul Jazz)
Friendship – Punish You (Various Production Remix) [PURE244S] (Too Pure)
Pitch Black – Please Leave Quietly (Hooves Remix) [Rude Mechanicals remixes] (Dubmission)

[* = Australian Track]

Gable – I’m OK (Loaf Recordings)

2009-06-29T21:28:54Z

This is a wonderfully out there 20 minutes of abstract pop. The French 3-piece, Gable, are obviously sonic grandchildren of the kind of thing Syd Barrett is famous for. But, if you’re going to be choosing your grandparents, you could do much worse than Syd Barrett. And Gable do enough with their influences to make it clear this is not pastiche. I’m OK starts out with a raw acoustic drum and snare wishing it was part of of a dubstep production, but the looped banjo filigree and and Tunng vocalisations steer it into its true place at the heart of weird glitch-folk pop. ‘Debut’ features non-sequiter spoken lyrics with a cut and paste approach to song construction, complete with snatches of big band brass stabs in place of a lead instrumental break.

Mandolins, nylon string guitars, toy pianos, xylophones, bells, strings and other at hand instruments are carefully sequenced amidst stray samples and grainy processing. With 13 tracks crammed in, some are obviously brief sonic ideas – the 55 second ‘Mon Cote Feminin’ a duet between cartoon punk guitar riff samples and melodica; ‘And’ a vignette of a single riff played out on all manner of electronic and acoustic instruments – but all feel somehow complete and purposeful. And some of the longer tracks, clocking in at just over two minutes, such as ‘Arm and Nose, Arms and Noise’ and ‘Sans Du Feu Dans Mes Mains’ are a reminder of the amount of detail that can be packed into small spaces. They feel like relative symphonies of pop songs with static and guitar but contain nothing extraneous, make their point beautifully and move on.

‘Charming’ is one of those reviewer words that gets thrown about to describe creative, loose, kitchen sink style releases. But it really does work for me in this case. A handful of simple sung hooks interspersed across a kaleidoscope of stray sounds and quirky jump-cuts. It doesn’t outstay its welcome but makes its brief running time count for much more than seems possible. Highly recommended.

Adrian Elmer

Extended Playlist 290609 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM

2009-06-30T09:07:15Z

————————-
Coming up Nextended –

Monday 6 July 09
Special Guest: Galaxy Fuzz Band
Fresh from burning up CDR punters’ ears with his new material, Mat Bright joins Extended Play to introduce his Galaxy Fuzz Band project and give us a sneek peek at material from some of his previous outfits (Distant Locust, among others) and inspirations.
Check: www.myspace.com/galaxyfuzzband

Monday 20 July 09
Special Guest: Scattered Order
Mitch Jones from Scattered Order gives us an update on what the band have been up to of late, talking about the recent box set release on Germany’s Vinyl-on-Demand label “Pardon Me For Barging In Like This… (M Squared: Rare Recordings 1979-1983)” and their upcoming live performance, together with The Makers Of The Dead Travel Fast, at Marrickville’s CAD Factory on Sunday 26 July
Check: www.scatteredorder.com

More themes at your leisure, please, to extendedplay@2ser.com .
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Holger Hiller – Liebe Beamtinnen und Beamte
(“Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube” – 1984, Ata Tak)

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Dancing
(“Peel Sessions 1979-1983” – 2000, Virgin) (first broadcast 1980)

The Camberwell Now – Greenfingers
(“Greenfingers” EP – 1987, Ink)

Chicks on Speed – Scream Song
(“Cutting The Edge” 2xCD – 2009, Chicks On Speed)

Toy Death – Heart Song
(“Progfest: The Best of Aussie Prog” 2xCD compilation – 2009, The Bird’s Robe Collective) #

Schlammpeitziger – Konfliktfickfähig
(“Augenwischwaldmoppgeflöte” – 2000, A-Musik)

Inquiet – Low Battery Classic
(“Yé Yé Bears” – 2006, Brother Sister) #

Stereolab – Low Fi
(“Low Fi” EP – 1993, Too Pure)

Can – Mary, Mary So Contrary
(“Monster Movie” – 1969, Spoon)

Tooth – Fire Projects
(“Mudlarking” 2xCD – 2006, SOFT) #

Cornelius – Wataridori
(“Brand Neu!” compilation – 2009, Feraltone) (original 2006)

Peaches – Lose You (Brodinski & Yusek Remix)
(“Lose You” single – 2009, XL)

The Juan Maclean – No Time
(“The Future Will Come” – 2009, DFA)

Harmonic 313 – Dirtbox
(“When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence” – 2008, Warp) #

Tony Lawrence – Gemini
(demo, 2009) #

Anne Clark – Contact
(“Changing Places” – 1983, Virgin)

Black Lung – The Hostmen Of Tyne
(“Full Spectrum Dominance” – 2009, PSY-HARMONICS) #

Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Zomby’s Analog Lego Mix)
(“Summertime Clothes” single – 2009, Domino)

Die Welttraumforscher – Das Leben ist seltsam
(“Das Licht Loon” – 2000, Storage Secret Sounds)

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Various Artists – Brand Neu! (Feraltone/Inertia)

2009-06-28T21:10:01Z

It’s a great shame that the entire contribution of Neu! to contemporary music has been reduced to a single rhythm conceit – the grand Motorik. While the liner notes of this compilation sees many of its contributors acknowledge the Germans’ contributions to everything from graphic design to musical minimalism to electronic/electric hybrids, listening through to the tracks it quickly becomes apparent that it is the motorik that has been the main criteria for track selection. This is sometimes a blessing but more often a curse.

For a band like Oasis, this compilation has the positive effect of recontextualising their work into a more experimental frame. For most of their releases post their Britpop heyday, they have been criticised for being unfocused and self-indulgent. But their ‘Can You See It Now? (I Can See It Now)’ fits in snugly amongst bands with far greater underground credibility, it’s lack of pop hooks rendered redundant as they show an ability to roll along abstractly and atmospherically with the best (and add the very obvious nod to the Velvet Underground to their long catalogue of ‘Artists We’ve Ripped Off’). Pets With Pets probably come closest to straight Neu! pastiche with ‘We Only Found This Plate’, though I can’t help but find the obvious drop in tempo as the hi-hats switch from 8th beats to 16th beats and their drummer struggles to hold the timing annoying, no matter how many times I listen and try to read the “I wish I was faster” refrain as self effacing. By contrast, Foals seem to channel the ideas of Neu! rather than the actual sounds, to great effect. Cornelius gets all psychedelic-funky with ping-pong guitar improvisations over a juttery version of ‘that’ beat. Holy Fuck and Kasabian add a Kraftwerkian edge to their ‘Super Inuit’ and ‘Stuntman’ freakouts respectively. School Of Seven Bells do their thing on ‘Device (Feur M)’ (one of the few previously unreleased tracks in the set) with low-key electronics taking front and centre place, their usual shoegazing guitars a little more subdued than normal. The only other true rarity is the last ever track recorded by Klaus Dinger (Neu!’s drummer) before his death in 2008. It sounds like the demo it undoubtedly is, but is unhinged enough to hold its place (just).

I have mixed feelings about this compilation. When I originally heard rumours of it, I was truly excited at the prospect of particularly hearing one of my favourites, LCD Soundsystem, in the context of a Neu! tribute. But their contribution points out the downside of this compilation. ‘Watch The Tapes’ is, of course, a track I have heard over and over in my listening to their own album. The vast majority of these tracks are already released elsewhere on the different artists’ own releases, and are all their own work, not Neu! covers. This in itself, is not a problem – the tracks are, without exception, all great. But that curatorial process mentioned earlier becomes a problem. In this context, choosing all the tracks based on a level of allegiance to the motorik means that each artist ends up sounding less inspired than they actually probably were when creating their tracks. Instead of the motorik being but one of countless influences colouring their own long form releases, it reduces them all to sounding like they’ve unimaginatively ripped off the exact same thing.

I really love the music found on this disc. But my recommendation (granted – a much more expensive and involved one) would be to track down the separate releases by each of the artists to hear them in a broader context, and to, of course, get the original Neu! albums. I think this would give a much truer indication of Neu!’s influence and the scope of where their blueprints have been taken by these diverse artists. It would also alleviate the horrible notion, (no doubt) inadvertently propagated by this compilation, that Neu! themselves were merely one-trick ponies.

Adrian Elmer

Lullatone – Songs that Spin in Circles (Audio Dregs Recordings)

2009-06-28T11:50:52Z

It is easy to be completely taken by Lullatone’s sixth album, bright lullabies constructed in deceptively simple presentations. The basic concept for this album is akin to the first track ‘A Mobile Over Your Head’, in that it is a child’s toy for fascination, and a device to lull to sleep. Also the construction of the pieces has a charming minimalist cyclical approach that incorporates its subtle changes amongst bright gleaming surfaces of revolving intertwined tonal plays. The use of vocal cycles, mostly intonations, sometimes tongue clicks or shhh’s, adds to this effect and has a genuine charm. The bossa nova of ‘A Plastic Bag in the Wind’ is particularly compelling; its childlike intonation attunes to lullaby purpose while hiding the formal aspects, rendering it somehow perceptually naïve. It like others are the beautiful lies we intone to youth, hiding the dark aspects of humanity and the world we lull them to sleep with bright happy songs of constructed joy, hoping that the gleam will never rub off.

‘A Merry-Go-Round in the Park’ is a quiet instrumental with heartbeat and glockenspiel like simplicity, a few effects and the introduction of drifting tones. ‘An Old Record on its Player’, gives the soft crackle loop of a finished record on a non return arm of an old player as the sopherific tone and melds it with bright wrought sine waves. ‘A Carousel on a Slide Projector’ again has the tuned down tones of a slow music box delivery, with slightly warped or muffled tones. ‘The Whole World While You Are Asleep’ is the perfect ending to the idea, with muted wind chime like melodies and an intermittent lapping wave recurrence all doused in a sonic cotton wool.

Lullatone consist of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Seymour from Nagoya and their album is a concept based on the music for babies idea, in particular their first born child. Their specific musical orientation has found them being a perfect partner to the Hello Kitty Brand having released two ep’s in conjunction with this brand. It has also found them on childrens TV programs in Japan as well as well respected indie labels around the world. Their ‘Minimalism is Cute’ mantra of conceptual construction and orientation finds easy and willing listeners to this well wrought optimism.

Innerversitysound

Cernlab – 52.09 (electroton)

2009-06-28T08:11:47Z

Hailing from Karlsrhue Germany, Marek Slipek, a communications designer, also conducts a lab for sound research and conceptual design with cernlab. Firstly it is not exactly clear that the cernlab referred to is indeed the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), or a project of Marek Slipek that references the name as a form of homage. However if you refer to the principles of Slipek’s cernlab listed below, especially the fifth, it doesn’t seem like an exceptional concern.

52.09 is a nine track album released on Nuremberg based Electron and consists of tracks marked delay 01-09. The tracks hold together in the stylistic manner similar to the device names: acid, electro, trip hop and minimal techno. The rhythms are often exploratory beyond these stylistic constraints; the sounds are honed to a precision and form that exudes the long performance history aspects to Slipeks art. Cavernous and industrial often, yet the sounds sparkle and glisten, in difference to the bleak take these sound concepts usually hold. An often ominous or immanent atmosphere is created by the conjunction of patterned repetitions, which build a psychological tension and leave residual trace. There is a wide influence of dub in the album within its formal construction and its affinity with sculptured bass forms as inherent to its identity. A predominate emphasis is on a textural interplay of rhythms, whether they be crushed frequencies, crackles, bright full tones, signal like or sharp beats. There is a significant amount of construction that suggest that the 101/303/909 are the key instruments that have influenced Slipek’s musical development and he masters the vocabulary of sounds developed from these machines in the 90’s with an aplomb not necessarily evident in the decade itself.

Generally speaking it is a well wrought musical form within the realms of musical forms that are not necessarily the immediate currency of today. But I still eat bread even though people tell me it holds little nutritional content and is really a form of delivering glue to your stomach. Given that perhaps we can never know of the true value of our work except in retrospect through another’s eyes I leave you with cernlabs self-definition in five sentences:

“First: I am because I calculate
Second: computer crashes caused by exceptional errors are part of the system
Third: there would be boredom without error
Fourth: fortuity is an inevitably occurrence based on the immutable laws of nature
Fifth: the sun is blue, if everyone agrees on it”

Innerversitysound

Bolaphone – The Four Rabbits EP (self released)

2009-06-28T03:18:53Z

Bolaphone is a beatsmith from the Czech Republic, I first stumbled upon his abstract beats through his releases on the Ground Floor Records net label, and later through commmunications and musical exchanges on a forum we both frequent. He’s an all round nice guy, humble and hard working, and he gives us his music for free, so we have to listen yeah? Well, we should, because he approaches his abstract productions from a different angle than most, offering a fresh pallette of sounds and textures.

The new EP, The Four Rabbits contains four tracks showing the Bolaphone beats, each one varied, plucked from film noir and other darker reaches, fleshed out with intricate and subtle electronics and processed sound, building to a growl. The organ is a prominent instrument for this EP giving a live jam feel to the compositions, elevating the tracks from not just beatscapes, but a soundtrack to an unmade movie.

With great haste, get over to www.bolaphone.net or www.myspace.com/bolaphon and link yourself with The Four Rabbits, and add some abstraction to your day.

Wayne Stronell

Monk Fly – Streetisms Volume 1 (The Frequency Lab)

2009-06-28T02:12:34Z

Monk Fly is a Sydney producer, DJ and musician influenced by everything from jazz, hip hop, dubstep, jungle, wonky beats and environmental sounds. Monk Fly, together with fellow bass-head Jonny Faith, hosts For The Heads, Sydney’s only weekly future beats radio show, and also the only regular club night, Headroom, dedicated to exploring the outer reaches of wonky abstract beat territory.

Following on from his acclaimed dubstep 12” release, An Afternoon With Camilla, Streetisms Volume 1 further develops Monk Fly’s take on dubstep, incorporating wonky abstract beats not unlike those of Flying Lotus, Rustie, Quarta 330 and Zombie. The first in a two part series dedicated to investigating the gritty, lo-fi bottom end of bass music.

This digital only release offers up five fresh new tracks, destined to cement his name as a producer to watch, the production sounds massive, I just can’t wait to hear this on a big sound system! In the interim, go check out a recent two part live laptop set at www.fortheheads.blogspot.com.

Wayne Stronell

wiQwar – wiQwar (Warnotwah Recordings)

2009-06-28T02:08:35Z

Musician/producer Russell Wickwars has gained quite a reputation for his live shows, with help from his brother Lewis, showcasing their laptop/guitar/ukulele sets alongside artists such as King Creosote, David Thomas Broughton, This Is The Kit, The Owl Service, Nancy Wallace and Essie Jain at festivals throughout Europe, including the Fence Collective’s Homegame Festival in Fife. Radio has been kind to the Norwich based musicians also, BBC Norfolk being big fans, as well as Australia’s own Sideways Through Sound Radio show.

The sound encompasses diverse musical influences, the obvious being folk and traditional celtic ancestry, creating a whimsical pop folk landscape. All their sounds come from home-made recordings of acoustic instruments, including beaten guitars, melodica, ukulele, glockenspiel, kalimba and a vast array of percussion, all processed, sequenced and built into beats and soundscapes, accompanying finger picked guitar melodies drawing comparisons to Rick Tomlinson (Voice Of The Seven Woods), Tunng and Zak Riles.

There is a folk-art, DIY, cottage industry ethic in everything about this release, from the multitude of acoustic instruments played well, and sometimes not so well, to lo-fi made at home approach to the production, and carried through to the cute diorama that’s used for the cover art work.

A beautifully relaxing record of soothing soundscapes and melodies, it makes you feel a contentment with life.

Wayne Stronell

Declining Winter Interview

2009-06-27T22:01:00Z

This is a short interview with one of my favourite musicians, Hood alumni Richard Adams that I did for Inpress about 4 months ago. The reason I post it now is because that not only is Goodbye Minnesota (Sensory Projects) such a great album, they’ve just released a download only remix album with some really great mixes from the likes of Bracken, Remote Viewer and Part Timer. Check http://sensoryprojects.com.au for more details.

Perhaps one of the most criminally underrated indie bands of the last decade and bit have been Leeds based quintet Hood, a band who have continued to create some of the most beautiful experimental melodies you will ever hear. They’ve remixed Mogwai and collaborated with Anticon, but are now they’re on an indefinite hiatus. Two years ago Chris Adams came out with his solo project Bracken and unleashed We Know About the Need, a gorgeous nuanced opus of understated electronica. His brother and co conspirator in Hood Richard Adams has taken a little more time. His project, Declining Winter’s debut release Goodbye Minnesota is nothing short of stunning. It’s impossible not to be seduced by the gorgeous shimmering instrumentation, simple textural sounds, violins, acoustic guitars gently plucked, basic percussion given plenty of space and of course the incredible winsome vocals that resonate so readily in Hood. It’s an album of sparse stately beauty, reminiscent of well, Hood.

“There’s definitely still a link there,” offers Richard Adams. “There’s no point in pretending the link doesn’t exist. Sometimes I think that people can be so scared of sounding like something that they end up losing everything. But to be honest I don’t sit down and think about it much. As long as I like it I’m fine with it.”

It’s quite curious. In going solo Adams has not taken the opportunity to establish his credential too far from Hood. This is not a long awaited doom techno record, or an opportunity to delve into deep funk. Instead everything feels easily traced back to his day job, and by extension his soul.

“I’m not the kind of person who will just lurch off in a different style,” he confirms. “This is what comes out when I make music. I wasn’t at any point thinking I better not make this sound like Hood, but there was no conscious decision to make it sound like Hood either. It’s what came out really. People have said that if you play mine and my brothers records together you get a Hood record. It’s two halves of one thing really.”

There is very little urgency about Adams and it’s incredibly reassuring. He’s not particularly good at selling his music, and seems content to let the music do the talking. Everything appears simple. Hood is not playing at the moment so now he has time to do things for himself.

“It’s an experiment in writing my own songs,” he says. “That’s literally it. It was either Chris writing the songs, the complete band stuff or either a collaboration with me and him. This is just an experiment for the first time in writing my own songs start to finish, doing everything rather than giving my ideas to others. Just a creative vehicle for me to write music really.”

But he enjoyed the process considerably.

“I think because I’m such a control freak, I’ve got my own ideas about stuff. It’s like I was set free really,” he confesses laughing. “I could put on all the parts that I wanted. Sometimes you have to go through committee you know.

In fact the success of Declining Winter, which has included putting a band together for live shows, has led to an curious problem. Where to now?

“My major issue about going forward with it is whether I still do it on my own or whether I get the band involved. At the moment I’m doing it myself but I’m still undecided. I’m trying to avoid it being diluted by others. I think the way forward may be a half and half approach. I don’t want to stick to the limited stuff I can do, but I don’t want to lose the themes I’ve developed also. I’m still undecided.

Bob Baker Fish