Dystonia Duos
Contrary to the effects of the titular condition, which I'm given to understand afflicts both musicians, and as also implied in the images of distorted and pained hands adorning the cover, there's some seriously steady and decisive music contained herein. It's understandable, for a moment, that the innocent listener might have an idea that this is more Panzner's affair than Stuart's if, like yours truly, one's knowledge of the latter's work is pretty much covered by his adventures in Wand…
Sinter
Something very cool about erstaeu 002's existing in such a different world than its numeric predecessor (and 003 is altogether different as well). After the sublime compressive intensity of "Dystonia Duos", "Sinter" injects vast amounts of oxygen into the room, air swirling and echoing in huge spaces, light shimmering and hazy. In metallurgical terms, sintering is the making of objects from powder and "powdery", especially with a metallic connotation, isn't the worst term you could use for much …
Mayville Dream
Ben Billington is a Chicago staple and multi-instrumentalist crucial to the metro area experimental landscape. He can morph his styles seamlessly and is fluent in many musical languages, whether he's playing in Moonrises, Circuit De Yeux (as a touring drummer), or in the legendary underground free-jazz unit Tiger Hatchery. Mayville is the sophomore LP following his Silver Balloons in Clusters LP on Under The Spire (while originally released as a cassette on Deception Island some time ago.) Wi…
Marriage of Metals
In its history throughout millennia it is fair to say the Gamelan has never had an encounter quite like this. Marriage of Metals is a devastating extension of the harmonic properties found in the instruments of Indonesia. Daniel Menche was granted access to a remarkable Gamelan studio where he was given full privilege to record any and all of these rare and ancient gongs -- most notably, the gigantic "Gong Ageng," that contains the deepest of deep acoustic bass. Menche took the raw source mat…
Trainwrekz
Ensemble Skalectrik is a side-project of Nick "Ekoplekz" Edwards. Previous emissions include the self-released psycho-geographical abstraction of Snuff Mill Tapes and a homage to Maurizio Bianchi via Feral Tapes. Focusing entirely on spontaneous composition and one-take improvisation, Ensemble Skalectrik represents the most raw, extreme performance-based electronic music in Edwards' repertoire. On Trainwrekz, Edwards has dusted-off his turntables, grabbed a stack of old vinyl (mainly sound e…
Four Years Older
A new set by the coolest chap in New York City, documenting the development process of a solo electric guitar piece that Alan Licht has been playing out for the last four years. Revered for his work in the Blue Humans and Text Of Light, and a key figure in the pantheon of experimental solo guitar players born in the late '60s such Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, Four Years Older is his debut Editions Mego release, representing another peak in a career of mining the rich seams of minimalism, noi…
Proper Headshrinker
Ever since Stephen Sharp and Roc Jiménez de Cisneros embarked on the deconstructive process they refer to as "Rave Synthesis," the goal was to come up with odd relatives of well-established sounds in techno culture by constantly messing with the original recipes, expanding the tropes, and hinting at novel paths for contemporary psychedelia. Almost three years after the influential Rave Slime, Evol's fifth album takes the idea one step further. The content of Proper Headshrinker was first pre…
Ambient/Ruin
Gravetemple was formed in 2006 as a side-project of the band Sunn O))) by Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O'Malley and Attila Csihar. The group formed initially to tour in Israel in the summer of '06, creating several recordings which eventually became The Holy Down album, which was released on Southern Lord Recordings in 2007. At the time of the Israel tour, the Lebanon War started and was in action. In summer '08, the trio reformed together with the addition of Australian drummer Matt "Skitz" Sander…
Undefined
Undefined is the first collaboration between artists Richard Chartier and Yann Novak. For this piece the artists chose to collaborate in a way that was less about concept and more about the act of listening. The piece began with Chartier creating an unfinished work and sending it to Novak with no explanation, just the instructions to add to it, subtract from it, or a combination in order to finish the piece. Novak was then to send the recording back to Chartier for a simple approval or rejection…
Blue.Hour
Yann Novak Blue.Hour explores the high contrast colors created in the landscape during “l’heure bleue,” the period of twilight each evening when there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. Directly following the ‘Golden Hour,’ know for its diffused yet powerful light, the Blue Hour retains the diffusion but lacks the strong light source giving this period of the day an especially melancholic and meditative atmosphere. Blue.Hour is presented here in stereo with some compositional elemen…
Circadian Rhythm, Sleep Disorder
LOGOS “The idea of dedicating a record to sleeping disorders hit my mind as an illumination when two tracks were already done and I was trying to find out their obscure sense. The more I searched for it the more I couldn”t sleep at night. Composing during nightime, through headphones, is a kind of sleep treatment for me. In a big city like Rome silence is a nearly nonexistent condition; only at night I seem to have the silence I need to concentrate, but some lonely car running down the road alwa…
Split LP
Ensemble Economique and Heroin In Tahiti are an outstanding pairing for a split LP" It’s a well-known story: the bluesmen sold their souls at dusty crossroads back in the old days. Far less is known about a younger generation’s deal with the devil, their affinity towards dark forces and black magic. Their hypnagogic highway to hell and success goes en route Tahiti where souls no longer can be sold because they’re already lost in secret Voodoo rites. The music that springs from having experienced…
Luftbobler
Gatefold double LP version. Brimming with subversive energy, searing wit and gallows humor, Luftbobler is the debut album by Dinos Chapman. Consisting of 13 tracks of electronic "Schlampige Musik," Luftbobler is the result of a decade of experimenting with sound. Inspired by insomnia, horror movies, and boredom, and made in a DIY fashion in the basement of his East London home, Luftbobler reflects Dinos Chapman's interests in the industrial pulse of Throbbing Gristle, willful experimentatio…
V
Given how prolific Barn Owl have been in the past, it's surprisingly to learn that it's been over 18 months since "Lost in the Glare," their last proper full-length. In the interim Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti have issued a variety of solo albums, but the duo has also used that time to augment the sound palette of Barn Owl with electronics and synthesizers. Thankfully, the same blackened soot and scorched psychedelia are still prevalent, they just reach deeper timbres and more expansive textures…
Drones
In the beginning there was the piano. As soon as he had mastered the basics, Jean-Philippe Goude discovered the spell of melancholy while working on a little musical piece: an etude ringing out in the style of a somber hymn. Not the dead meat smells of somberness that, according to Picabia, serious people emit, but the earthen gravity of an abyss dug by life itself. Everything is the result of this bedazzlement. At 11 years old, Jean-Philippe Goude closed his eyes. When his eyelids finall…
Vergezichten
Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek is a master of self-made sound and time-stretching, sensitively handling organic recordings and samples on countless releases, and regards preset sounds in an organ or a cheap keyboard as a tonal find, as a part of the cacophony of everyday life. These bontempi-rhythms plus the computer-stretched sounds of saxophone (Espen Reinertsen) and voice (Mariska Baars) are the base elements of "Vergezicht 1" and "Vergezicht 2." It is stunning how Zuydervelt man…
Anxiety
Anxiety is the full-length follow up to Autre Ne Veut's 2010 self-titled debut, which was for many the definitive post-millennial Failure Pop statement outside of time and style. Autre Ne Veut rivaled other lovelorn 'missteps' such as Marvin Gaye's Here My Dear and Big Star's Sister Lovers. If you didn't hear the connection, you weren't listening closely enough. Be that as it may, ANV brazenly decided to make it easier for people with his post-canonical return. No longer playing the role o…
Ectoplasma
Software Recording Co. presents Tropa Macaca's fourth release, Ectoplasm. The ambient-noise duo of André Abel and Joana da Conceição have been going strong from their Portugal home base since 2005, while lunging out into the world with releases via Qbico and Ruby Red. The following to 2009's Sensação do Princípio on Stiltbreeze, Ectoplasm finds Tropa Macaca creating a quantic fantasy sound not unlike a cybernetically enhanced Taj Mahal Travellers interpreting a lost chapter of One Hundred…
Burnt Up On Re-Entry
Burnt Up On Re-Entry is an infinite space where dark psychedelics are crafted using a combination of raw electronics, manipulated samples & heavy rock guitar. The song craft remains centered around a heavy melodic & melancholic core, which has been prevalent across the entire Boduf Songs canon.
Live At Skymall
Jan Jelinek, Hanno Leichtmann and Andrew Pekler have formed a trio that can truly be called a supergroup. As solo artists, all three members are among the most renowned of Berlin's electronic musicians. When playing together as Groupshow, the three instrumentalists -- themselves largely informed by minimalist sensibilities -- engage with the idiom of free-form collective improvisation, which has a long tradition in Germany dating back to the days of Fluxus and Krautrock. Consequentially, t…