Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Aspidistrafly - i hold a wish for you (Kitchen)

Posted: 09 Feb 2009 09:55 PM CST

i hold a wish for you

I Hold a Wish for You, the first full-length from April Lee (voice, computer, acoustic guitar, harmonium, glockenspiel, music box) and Ricks Ang (guitar, computer, piano, melodica, percussion), flows like a stream of unused and detached energy, a surplus sensuousness that is not absorbed by any end, practical or otherwise. The album first sets its sights to a northern lights display of cascading harmonics on “Candlescape”. A frottage of spindly guitar then plods through an islet of slow-moving textures as Lee’s voice, light and shifting, weaves romantic and elegant streams of spells.

As it progresses, the work is saved by the spare yet steady stitching together of songs and beautiful, tiny sounds and almost subliminal textures. The prevalence of this aspect in the duo’s approach moves the record well into an intimate and ambiguous space where, by and large, the proceedings are neither too soporific nor florid, neither too habitual nor scattered. Far from it, in fact, as no small number of moments achieve a spontaneous vitality in the spatial placement of discreet and amorphous sounds and in the timely shifts brought about in the color and shading of these expansive backdrops.

Particularly in the later stages, when the two of them skirt from the heady piano melody and rich drone of “Porcelain Sky Wink” to the whirling sonic ornaments and digital hiccups of “Sui” and finally come to rest in the comparatively rough, earthy expressionism of “Endless Destination”, led by Lee’s roving voice, the work is able to build much anticipation and coincidence. Refined and robust, these well organized aural assemblages give ample animation and seriousness to the light and prosaic elements of the everyday.

Max Schaefer

Pan American - White Bird Release (Kranky)

Posted: 09 Feb 2009 06:22 AM CST

white bird release

The introduction of a new child into the life of Mark Nelson seemed in large part responsible for the change in degrees of acquaintanceship among the elements that comprised For Waiting, For Chasing, his previous full-length release on the Mosz imprint. Though that work tenderly puckered feint nursery rhyme’s into a crackled canvas of obscure oscillations and meditative guitars wrung through a host of muddy analogue delays, White Bird Release embraces another kind of change, one sprung not from external introductions, but their internal reverberations. By sinking down into the style from which he began (the one which, incidentally, dates back to his days as a member of Labradford), Nelson soon finds himself sinking upwards, turning this past into context and ensphering it in a similar yet different energy.

Nelson’s short memory is to his advantage, then, since it gives a certain flexibility to the skillful layering and placement of instruments in the soundfield, a certain lightness to the slowly shifting fog-formations. With “There Can Be No Thought Of Finishing”, his low frequency sonic ceremony is hushed yet of a certain awe, bracing rather than relaxing. For the rest of the recording, electronics and organic instruments are mutually enriching and fertilizing, maintaining at once a calm presence and a vividness in the revitalization of these wide-eyed yet finely balanced and paced compositions. Nelson may have been here before, but on this occasion he’s taken this aural space up with a cusp-of-the-moment resourcefulness, which births real mobility, suppleness, and radiating energy.

Max Schaefer

R.S.A.G. - Organic Sampler (PsychoNavigation)

Posted: 09 Feb 2009 06:40 AM CST

RSAG

Kilkenny, Ireland-based multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Hickey (aka R.S.A.G. - an abbreviation of ‘Rarely Seen Above Ground’) certainly sets out some ambitious turf, while he hands live percussion, drums and vocals during his live shows, he projects a virtual band of his own multiple images behind him, resulting in a shadowplay collision of his pre-recorded backing tracks and ’sidemen.’ This debut album as R.S.A.G. on Dublin label PsychoNavigation ‘Organic Sampler’ certainly makes a solid case for checking out his live show, and indeed the fusion of angular post-punk guitars and bass, nervous, twitchy vocals and thunderous multitracked percussion in evidence on tracks such as ‘Talk Back Crawl Back’ and ‘The Climb’ frequently calls to mind a cross between Talking Heads’ jerky white funk and the rolling Afrobeat ‘fullness’ of Caribou / Manitoba – something that becomes particularly apparent on ‘It Over’s clattering flurry of metallic snare textures. Elsewhere, there’s also a touch of Joy Division’s dark landscapes amidst the wiry guitars and mechanical drumming of closing track ‘Moving Image’, a suitably epic coda to the nine tracks contained here. While ‘Organic Sampler’ itself comes across as a fairly petite album, running in at just a shade over 35 minutes, it’s bolstered here with an additional second disc containing R.S.A.G.’s previous self-titled recordings. Well worth investigating.

Juarez - Revontulet (Sabbatical)

Posted: 09 Feb 2009 04:59 AM CST

The opening piece Favourite purposely pisses you off, a low repetitive cyclical drone begins, forcing you to adjust the volume and then a short abrupt aggressive jolt comes unexpectedly at a ridiculously higher volume. It’s music that doesn’t want to be friends with you, and it’s a highly provocative act that is a sledgehammer technique devised to make you uneasy. Later this white digital noise is developed gradually increasing in volume, and this kind of ramp up reminiscent of Thembi Soddell is much more welcome. The abrupt pre crescendo cut to finish the piece emphasises the sound art techniques at play here, yet there is also an improvised feel to many of the pieces and a dark ambient electroacoustic approach that focusses on dark synthetic rumbles, drones and textures.

Juarez is the solo project of Jessica Pinney, one half of Johnny Saw Horses, who offers up four pieces of dark edgy ambience on her debut release for Melbourne label Sabbatical.

Later on the longest piece Lex she involves her voice, a lazy stoned wail, moaning and muttering, heavily delayed over this gorgeous looped bubbling electronica that seems to just drift along in waves. As it progresses the voice becomes shrill and dominating, almost like she is having a tantrum after her version of seduction hasn’t worked. This the sledgehammer again, there’s no subtlety here, it just becomes difficult and uncomfortable. Later she loses the vocals and lets the bubbles coalesce with a bottom heavy throb and it becomes much more interesting.

The final piece What I’d Do is the most musical, though in a very lose and scattered way. A plodding metronomic beat and evolving vocal melody actually interact cleverly with processed electronics and keys. It’s like a kind of sea shanty nurse rhyme that builds into a bizarre drone of scattered noise and it’s evolution is nothing short of compelling. It’s definitely the highlight of this album, which comes across as a collection of Pinney’s improvisations and sonic experiments, some of the directions are curious, others need a little more development.

Bob Baker Fish