Cyclic Defrost Magazine |  |
| Christophe Bailleau - Air Resort (Soundscaping) Posted: 17 Feb 2009 09:07 PM CST
Air resort shimmers in a high register of recurring themes played out on minimal glistening strings, mostly guitar, syth washes of flowing and warbling tone and effect laden palate. Yoshi Island, built around an insistent gleam, repeat and cycle of a tonal sample with effects, brimming in and out of the foreground while synth waves fill the tapestry. Bailleau moves the tone to a minimal tinkling brightness only to interweave it back, dissolving the tone to abstraction and reintroducing it at a quieter pace to exit. Silence Cadeau, reverberates to a similar manner introducing quiet trickling electronic moments, majestic organesque tonal sequences and spatial effect laden moments. In the center resides collaboration with Canadian Mark Templeton in Small Village on the Hill. Romping pattered purr underplayed by high tonal wavering constancy and layers of sound pastiche approaching, overwhelming and receding back to central theme, eventually moving to a quiet ending guitar and effects overlay. There is also a collaboration with Sebastien Roux , Je Te Laisse Des Messages Sur Ton Décodedeur, that is more densely packed with sound shards and experimental play to the point of description free abstraction suitable to the elevated experimental view. Christophe Bailleau highly abstracted and dense experimental form here distinct from 2008’s acoustic vocal experimental collabration On Soft Mountains We weave Magic, while remaining high plains orientated, pinnacle sonic experience as sound palate. It plainly begs the question: 'An Air Resort by any other name would be…?' Innerversitysound |
| Emeralds - What Happened (No Fun Productions) Posted: 17 Feb 2009 06:03 PM CST
Despite having released material on Hanson Records and now Carlos Giffoni's No Fun, Ohio's Emeralds isn't a noise band in the way most people understand the term. ‘What Happened’ isn't a document of inscrutable, uncompromising static and fuzz but rather an epic, multi-faceted and often mournful collision of abrasive textures and ghostly analog synthesizers. On ‘What Happened’, Emeralds channel oblique, monochromatic landscapes that seem slightly troubled, almost off-frequency but not quite. Like a ghostly, post-apocalyptic dystopia, the metallic and synthetic sheen of Emeralds is gradually knawed away by more 'naturalistic' elements, whether by the mournful notes of a guitar on the superb Living Room, or the push of layered, windy distortion that always threatens to topple their structured improvisations away. If German synth pioneers like Klaus Schulze and Cluster built seemingly impenetrable monoliths of stainless steel elegance, Emeralds make every effort to weather those towers until they're rusted and grimy. Emeralds sounds post-futuristic, as if they've reached the aesthetic end-zone of electronic music and now desire to recklessly strip it down, pull the circuitry out and fuck with the live wiring. And like Burning Star Core's ‘Challenger’, it convincingly channels the entropy of the 21st century safety net: as we watch the economy and the world itself quickly decay, this future isn't looking as clean and prosperous as we may have projected 40 years ago. Shaun Prescott |
| Alexandr Vatagin - Shards (Valeot Records) Posted: 17 Feb 2009 01:27 PM CST
In of all of Shards eighteen minutes, Alexandr Vatagin bares a rare ability to produce gripping sonic art from basic and often immutable materials. Mostly comprised of clouds of hiss, rattle, and hypnotic slices of motorik fuzz, much is blurred and craggy. All the same, each work has a drowsy guitar drone, haunted vibraphone interlude or lyrical string passage that washes carefully through their bodies and sustains them as a slow paced fragmentary lament. A number of the pieces tune in to oscillating frequencies and static bursts, which build incrementally, forcing the tension to wax and wan, before the violin unfolds slowly and nags away at melodic fragments. With “Stadions”, a noisy bass drone cuts through harsher layers of fuzz, working in tandem with the errant field recordings to achieve a wrenching, guttural impact, until a sweeping cello passage bathes it all in a certain resignation. As effective and natural as these combinations are, owing to the stolid progress often made by the organic instruments, and the fact that the compositions are rather short, the arrangements often come across as lymphatic. Although suggestive of much potential, a proper full-length is needed in order to properly gauge Vatagin’s prowess. Max Schaefer |
| City of Satellites - The Spook (Hidden Shoal Recordings) Posted: 17 Feb 2009 01:26 PM CST
City of Satellites expansive Moon and the Sea opens their debut ep The Spook, chime and synth otherworldly mood setting opening into melodic guitar themes, stripped back minimal drumming style, highly wrought synthesizer dressing and the will-o’-the-wisp vocals. At once a form of dreamlike pop with darker undertones it holds all the hallmarks of well wrought emotive post rock landscapes. City of Satellites can at times have a sense of the romantic and melodramatic about its effect and styling but the arena for these emotions is part of the attraction. It is a long distance project between Adelaide and Sydney by Jarrod Manuel (vocals, guitars, synthesizers) and Thomas Diakomichalis (drums, synthesizers,programming) respectively. Distance being culturally non specific the music released in Perth and well received in North America. Eschewing time as well, Sleeping Disgrace conjures up ghosts of 80's guitar melancholia wrapped up in backwards guitar loops, drones, clever effects and programming, driving the form clearly into a present setting. Closing The Spook is the title track containing a more sonically full tapestry, achieving atmospheric effect and sound wall, sensory and emotive thrall. Innerversitysound |
| Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster Noton/ Stomp) Posted: 17 Feb 2009 01:26 PM CST
The second volume in Alva Noto’s Xerrox series is majestic widescreen sound art. The kind of bold highly emotive slightly melodic noise that is lush and mesmirising, almost symphonic in its scope and grandeur. Alva Noto is Raster Noton co founder, the German born Carsten Nicolai, who was last in town at the Melbourne Festival performing with Ryuichi Sakamoto as part of Insen. And curiously samples from this live performance are some of the ingredients used to construct the 11 pieces here, as are samples from Stephen O’Malley (Sun 0)))), from screen composer Michael Nyman, from a malfunctioning Continental Airline Inflight program and from metaphysical function 1 and 2 (whatever that is). The process is about snipping these samples and removing any semblance of their former selves, altering their tones, timbres and textures, and correspondingly the music is highly abstract, slow sweeping melodic oscillations, transcendent digital noise, electronic pulses, clutches of static and brooding bottom end. They’re ingredients that we’ve heard used many times before by numerous artists, but they’ve never sounded so vibrant and been used in such arresting ways. This music is simply jaw dropping. It’s abstract sound design that has evolved into the score and plugs directly into the emotions. The closest parallel I can draw is the Fennesz’s unique ability to make noise so emotional, as this music runs the emotive gamut. It’s yearning, tranquil one minute and then it evolves into something sprawling, aggressive and finally transcendent. It’s apparently the second in a series of five Xerrox releases and such is the beauty and scope this ambient noise music that you’d find it very hard to believe that it could every be surpassed, by him or anyone else. Bob Baker Fish |
| Paradigm Shift Radioshow Playlist 16 Feb 2009 Posted: 17 Feb 2009 03:33 AM CST 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 Mungo’s Hi Fi - Mexican Bean feat. BenJammin [Mexican Bean Riddim] (Scotch Bonnet) [* = Australian track] |
| “Remix Rocks The New Age” - Extended Playlist 160209 - www.2ser.com 107.3FM Posted: 17 Feb 2009 03:22 AM CST Raucously starting off this week's EPdition is a 1979 live recording (from their Boys Next Door/Birthday Party support slot at Hearts, North Carlton) of Fitzroy's Primitive Calculators. We also check a number of brand new arrivals courtesy of the lovely Filewile from Bern, Switzerland - www.filewile.com - and Shoeb Ahmad's label hellosQuare from Canberra - www.hellosquarerecordings.com. Make sure you get down to Paddington if you’re in Sydney this coming Sunday afternoon for Shoeb's collab with ex-Triosk keyboards/pianoman Adrian Klumpes (www.adrianklumpes.com): Courtesy of China's Sa Dingding, who makes up her own language - just like Liz Fraser from the Cocteau Twins www.cocteautwins.com - a taster for her 8 March show (part of Hemispheres 09) at the Sydney Opera House - www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/sadingding.aspx blending nicely with Susumu Yokota's new vocal-heavy album "Mother" - www.susumuyokota.org. The dawning of a new age, man… ————————- Primitive Calculators - Bake In The Sun Austin Benjamin Trio - Resonance as a Colour (Mapstation Remix) Telefon Tel Aviv - M Robert Lippok - Parade Adem - Launch Yourself (Hot Chip Remix) Algorythm & Blues - Cute Ass Algorithm (Deadbeat’s Desi Sleng Destroyer) Buraka Som Sistema - Sound Of Kuduro (DJ Mehdi's Sound Of Terror Remix) Harmonic 313 - Cyclotron Monster Zoku Onsomb! - Team Siouxsie A Certain Frank - Nothing Robert Henke - [_flicker] Omit - Dropper Sa Dingding - Lagu Lagu Susumu Yokota - Reflect Mind (feat. Nancy Elizabeth & KAORI) Animal Collective - No More Runnin Barrage - Corridor Fujiya & Miyagi - Hundreds & Thousands Fabio Orsi & Valerio Cosi - The Frozen Seasons Of Lysergia (Part One) Do you like our playlists? |
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