Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Various Artists – Twisting The Frame (Myuzyk)

Posted: 18 Jan 2009 06:04 AM CST

Twisting The Frame

Myuzyk is a net-label I have raved about in the past, only up to its twelfth release, but wielding a couple of great compilations, and some outstanding ep's from artists such as Remdog (Reptiles) and Sil-X. Twisting The Frame is the new compilation on the emerging label, and hip-hop is the underlying thread, albeit a loose thread, allowing deviation from the mainstay, but this is what this label is all about… This compilation delves into the leftfield, the abstract, the electronic, different interpretations on what hip-hop is all about, both vocally and instrumentally. Taking over two years to put together, artists conscripted from various forums and online music communities, it overflows with fresh sounds that should make any label sit up and take notice, because this is the competition, with one distinct advantage, its available for free download from their website www.myuzyk.net. As with most Myuzyk releases, they are free, so you have no excuse not to check the label out, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Dave Graham opens the compilation with I Have Come To Wound The Autumnal City, a plodding beat, militaristic high hats, and soaring synth washes instill dread. 2econd Class Citizen with For This We’ll Find No End featuring Reindeer, Honey & Blackbird on vocal delivery bring folk tinged dirty drums with monotonous flows, a modern day dirge with blue sky far in the distance… This track has been lifted from a forthcoming release on Equinox, another emerging label of notable talent. Golden Rod by Herma Puma is one of the standouts for me, more dusty breaks sitting atop a psychedelic guitar god shredding from the grave. Tin Foil Hat by Mr Hood delves into more motorik influences and dub inflections, while The Painter With The Dead Painter by Remdog taps straight into your brain with a straight up pulsating electro track. Gone Out Back by sasQwax (aka Waxfactor) shines as another standout, and acts as a teaser for a new sound in development, one to watch with its psych influences, yet modern production, firmly rooted in all things hip-hop. Sayin Nathen by Awkward is more straight up beats, riding on a grime bassline, featuring a quick paced rap by Douchebaggalo. Petrol Lips by Kondor brings to mind the more hip-hop moments of Autechre and Gescom, intricate electronic passages ever decaying with despondent beats. Another Place by 2Tall sounds like nothing else, almost tribal, the bastard child of 23 Skidoo. Take It Down by WrongTom is heavily funk influenced, with an urgency subdued by the fantastic vocal talents of Sarah Wayne, another newcomer to keep an eye on. Weed Pharma by File With Interpol oozes warm organic electronica, while One by Ambulance Chasers (another Waxfactor project) covers similar territory, with heavily edited rhythmic pulses and bleeps. Broken Heart Beats by English Bore brings back the dirge with sluggish beats and chiming synth lines, sounding other-worldly. Rounding out the compilation is Septuhseemeeuh by Buddy Peace, dragging folk melodies and druggy spoken word to the fore, altering into a different beast of cut-up old school hip-hop slowly reabsorbing the folk intro.

An absolutely fantastic compilation, and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't find this out for yourself, I can't recommend this highly enough. So download it now from www.myuzyk.net.

Wayne Stronell

Various Artists - Optimo (Espacio) presents Sleepwalk (Domino)

Posted: 18 Jan 2009 03:01 AM CST

optimo-sleepwalk

It is with a heavy heart that I review this Sleepwalk by Optimo. On the one hand it is an immense expression of sound artists, technology and its advanced practitioners. On the other hand a prime focusing on listening itself is the foregrounded question what is the sound of sound? Whether this is a question for the listener or the musician could be held to be moot from the 'I just came here to dance' crowd.

Sleepwalk is eclectic and expresses DJs JD Twitch and JG Wilkes great enthusiasm and prolific ear for music outside the boundaries of their hip Glasgow club Optimo (Espacio). It is definitely a listening album beyond the confines of the sense of ambient chill in the straight rave sense. It combines the poetics of Eden Ahbez 'La Mer' with the dissipation of Lee Hazelwood doing a version of "Whole lotta shakin' going on', Duke Ellington, Arthur Russell's classic 'This is how we walk on the moon', Cluster, Tuxedomoon, Coil… So as you can see, if you have at all ventured into the realms of these artists' works that there is a great variance in the tableau of sound presented by Optimo. It is not merely the mixing, but the engineering and production that Optimo bring to the collection that present it as a wildly interesting thrill for the ear.

The real reticence I have about Optimo is a question of a waking life rather than mere sleepwalking. Being of the obsessive cultural imbiber, the examination of artifacts is key to this particular illness. I have come to the conclusion that anything associated with the occult world is by nature doomed. Think 'The Maltese Falcon' or 'Foucault's Pendulum' as signposts in my world. So now having in front of me a sonic text recorded at 'The Solar Lodge' the warning bells are going off in my head, think Manson, Solar Temple, boy in the box, think 'The Family'. You have it, I would prefer you didn't, it is such an impressive collection that to tie it all together with such reference points is odd to say the least. But closer examination of some of the artists involved may have you closer to this world than wisdom would allow.

So if you find that sound encapsulates the world of the artist, that music conveys this world to the audience then you may very well question whether this mix is for you. You may very well be considerably postmodern and consider that expression is by essence all, rather than that which is expressed, that all has validity. Perhaps examination of art in terms of artistic responsibility in terms of what is expressed is merely old fashioned and questions of ethics in art are a supreme delusion. However it is not in the movement beyond good and evil, in the existential sense, or beyond the infinite, but a life truly lived well will convey through its artifacts ideas and lasting truths that have no need for the esoteric arts.

However you may very well consider these opinions to be mere interests of the reviewer, let your ear do the listening, perhaps not your eye.

Innerversitysound