Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Posted: 27 Jan 2009 12:54 AM CST

Bibio - Vignetting The Compost

Having moved on from a critically acclaimed debut, Bibio has shifted labels, to Mush, which seems like a strange marriage, as Mush is usually associated with indie/experimental hip-hop. Mush is not the only hip-hop label to be broadening its horizons, Anticon, often compared with Mush, has also gone down this road, broadening its roster to contain more folk tinged output. This is one of those creatures, long gone has the intricate ambient soundscapes and textures of an emerging Bibio, yes, their were folk melodies running through the electronica, but this album has been stripped of the electronics, back to the bare bones, is this the real roots of the Bibio sound?

I didn't really give this much attention on the first listen, and its probably fortunate I didn't review it after this one listen. Revisiting later, trying to absorb more of the sound, trying not to revert to how I 'expected' a new Bibio album to sound, I find some hidden charm, warmth, and refreshing song writing I was not expecting. While I mention the word 'folk', you'd expect something not dissimilar to Tunng, but the level in which electronics is used is well hidden, almost transparent to the listener. Yes I'm sure Bibio has used electronics and modern production on this album, but its more confined to the assembly of the songs, and the very subtle effects applied to a mostly acoustic sounding record.

There is strong song structure here, largely centred around the acoustic guitar, vocals and percussion. It even has a 'warble' to the sound, making it appear to be plucked from the fertile era of psychedelic folk in the late 60's and early 70's, it just doesn't sound like an album released in 2009, more like a long lost classic ripe for reissue. There are give away signs of course, the electronic effects do creep in, and they sound very 'now', the distorted static loop in Under The Pier is a give away, that organic electronic processing much loved on previous Bibio material, and heralded as the signature sound of Boards Of Canada. The new folk movement is one to watch with artists such as Bibio applying their techniques to the genre, managing to stand alone in its sound, not sounding too much like anywhere else, yes there are moments looking back to Boards Of Canada, Rick Tomlinson, or early acoustic Thrill Jockey artists, but on the whole this is something totally new, but sounding very old… If I'm not making much sense, its best you investigate this further, as I'm sure you'll find this a rewarding listening experience, especially when you can forget your pre-conceived ideas of what a new Bibio record should sound like.

Ace.

Wayne Stronell

Cinematic Orchestra at City Recital Hall, Sydney 21/01/09 (Sydney Festival 2009)

Posted: 27 Jan 2009 05:43 AM CST

I’d been waiting to see J.Swinscoe’s Cinematic Orchestra for almost a decade.

Back when our club night, Frigid, was around, Cinematic Orchestra tracks featured prominently in the late 90s and early 00s. Cinematic’s first few albums, Motion and Every Day as well as the alternative soundtrack for Dziga Vertov’s A Man And His Movie Camera are high water marks of those few years - capturing a period when the astral jazz period of Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago were being re-explored (and re-imagined) by a new generation.

I don’t often walk out of live gigs. Especially not when I’m reviewing them.

Left without a visual backing and faced with a seated audience, a band’s live presence needs to leap offstage and grab the audience immediately - even if their latest recordings have been relegated to no name compilations featuring permutations of the words “art”, “chill” and “lounge”. Instead we get producer and composer Swinscoe politely introducing the band then standing back behind a laptop, arms behind his back, whilst his band plays, occasionally shifting to trigger an effect.

Now the band itself were fine musicians but, tonight, were without any presence. Vocalist Heidi Vogel ululated without conviction ending up sounding terrible, the drummer played as if bored, the saxophonist squawked then disappeared offstage only to reappear later in the same track, and the whole mix was dragged down by reverb and bass.

Sitting in front of the mixing desk is usually a good move - if you can be close to the mix engineer then you’re most likely to get good sound - but in this case the mix was so dire and dominated by bass that it was indistict and foggy. Brooklyn guitarist Grey Reverend (real name Larry Brown) redeemed proceedings slightly with his lovely modest guitar work but the damage had been done already.

As I sat there in the puddle of reverb and bass I thought back to those few years between 1999 and 2001. Surely my friends and I hadn’t been conned into thinking that this music was anything more than ‘contemporary jazz’ dressed up in shimmering ‘trippy’ effects?

This should have been much better. Indeed, on paper it should have been one of the best gigs of the past 12 months.

First night nerves? A new venue? Jetlag?

I expected more. Much more.

Know-U – Kabuto EP (The Frequency Lab)

Posted: 27 Jan 2009 05:42 AM CST

Know-U

Sydney-based dubstep producer Know-U first started throwing parties, Djing drum and bass and playing in bands back in Newcastle, before his recent relocation brought him to the attention of The Frequency Lab collective, leading to his playing at their monthly label party. He’s also attracted significant attention already during his comparatively short career, with his tracks receiving blog and podcast support, as well as interest from UK dubstep names such as Hot Flush’s Gravious. This five track 12" EP offers up the first taste of Know-U’s dark and brooding dubstep productions, and appropriately, takes its title ‘Kabuto’, from the Japanese word for Samurai helmet, suitably evoking an atmosphere that’s both exotic and hard-edged. Opening track ‘Gooseflesh’ certain lives up to this description, opening with an ominous wash of dark ambience before crisp, rapid-fire breakstep rhythms emerge from the shadows and lock in around vast, swagger swells of ragga-centric bass, with moody, shimmering synths lending proceedings a vaguely melancholic and weary-sounding edge.

By contrast, ‘Like Horse For Comfort’ lightens proceedings somewhat but still maintains that dark underlying edge, with flickering snares and rippling electronics making their way over a downbeat backing of synthetic dub bass and clicking electro accents, before ‘For Get Full’ sees dark, delayed-out atmospheric piano trills making an appearance alongside stabbing bass noise bursts in what’s easily this EP’s most eerily soundtrack-oriented moment. If the aforementioned three tracks suggest a release sitting closer to the late night listening end of the dubstep spectrum, the flipside brings the dancefloor fuel, with the devestating ‘Identity Theft tossing in scything waves of sub-bass, before ‘Broken Heart’ closes proceedings off amidst ambient, blurred synthscapes. An impressive debut offering from a local producer who’s definitely following his own muse, rather than simply being another dubstep soundalike.

Chris Downton

Dupois - Fallen (I Don’t Eat Phish records)

Posted: 27 Jan 2009 05:42 AM CST

Fallen is the debut album of mysterious Zurich resident Dupois. It’s one of the most pleasing ambient releases I’ve heard in a while. The sound is big, dark, cinematic - think driving down the autobahn in a brand new Mercedes - the engine purrs like a panther on prozac, the arc lights blur as they flash by, the windscreen wipers put you into a trance - and this is what’s playing on the car stereo. This is ambient with teeth. The basslines are deep and dubby, the rhythms skitter and lurch like the Aphex Twin, the beats are indistinct and gaseous, melodic fragments zoom in and out of focus. The track titles give a flavour of the paranoid mindset: ‘The Abandoned’; ‘Subtle Conspiracy’; ‘Panoptic Structure’. Occasional sampled and treated voices low in the mix add to the pervading sense of unease. For some reason listening to this album makes me think of Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now - I imagine walking down those deserted Venetian alleyways, watching out for the ghostly child in the red coat. If ever that film is remade, Dupois is the man for the soundtrack.

[For MP3 previews click here.]

Ewan Burke

Color Cassette - Forever Sparrow (Autres Directions In Music)

Posted: 27 Jan 2009 05:41 AM CST

It was only a few weeks ago that I listed Color Cassette’s last release on my Best of 2008 list. That release, Small Town Smoker on the Mobeer label, featured delicate acoustic sounds delicately processed into a kaleidoscope of intricate delicacy. It was beautiful. And it also came as two 3″ CD-Rs, one as ‘Side A’ and one as ‘Side B’. I was surprised to hear there was a whole new album out only a matter of months after that release and was very interested to see how such a quick turnaround might affect quality.

I can very happily report that, if anything, this is even better. The basic musical premise is the same and it’s a pretty incredible one. Gentle acoustic instruments layered carefully, allowing space for the thousands of tiny pieces of electronic processing. Field recordings that sometimes act as background wash, sometimes as rhythms themselves, carefully looped avoiding any clumsiness or heavy handedness. The music really is a delight. I’m sitting here at the moment listening through my large stereo and it makes an impressive whole, but it’s even better on headphones where the amount of miniscule details can be taken in fully.

The big shift on this release is the addition of vocals. Where Small Town Smoker was entirely instrumental, Forever Sparrow features main man Jason Corder’s gentle voice on every track. Fortunately, that voice is at one with the music. Double tracked, it reminds me a great deal of late 60s/early 70s Pink Floyd at their most introspective. It is used as source material for the processing as much as any other sound and, to be honest, it wasn’t until I read through the bio after quite a number of listens that I realised the lyrics had any specific focus - I had heard them completely as another sonic texture. It turns out the lyrics draw the songs together as a concept album, about “a small boy who gets lost in a magic forest, and when he is transformed into a sparrow, chooses to stay in this extraordinary world forever.” Don’t let that throw you, though. It actually suits the very British (even though they’re from middle-America), pastoral psychedelia of the music quite nicely and, as pointed out, the lyrics themselves don’t actually intrude but sit as gently as every other element.

So, yes, there is an extremely good chance that Color Cassette may end up on this year’s Best Of list as well.

Adrian Elmer