Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Dollboy – A Beard Of Bees (Static Caravan)

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:50 AM PDT

Dollboy - A Beard Of Bees

Oliver Cherer is an English musician, who makes the modern equivalent to fractured folk, a fine balance of delicate analog electronica, acoustic instrumentation and a folk sensibility when it comes to composition. He also happens to be on one of my all time favourite labels, Static Caravan, a label that continues to grow, develop, adapt, and release truly interesting music after many years, this being its 179th release. I first stumbled upon Dollboy with my fascination in Tunng, when they released a split 7" remixing each others track. Its this psychedelic pastoral whimsy that shines through on releases by acts such as Dollboy and Tunng, harking back to the 60's, and the strangeness of such soundtracks as The Wickerman.

A Beard Of Bees is Oliver's first foray into song based composition, his previous work being instrumental, he has retained the pastoral whimsy, bird song and all, but has structured finely crafted songs around his instrumentation. This could be an album from the 60's if it wasn't for the obvious electronic treatments, textures and pulses. The subject matter screams psychedelia, with tracks like California, Tea Dance, He Went Down To The Sea and Heavenly, and a heavenly feel is what washes over you.

This is a new bread of folk music, time to grab your guitar and go sit in a field. Static Caravan yet again give us another classic release.

Wayne Stronell

Boyronin – Oaktown Massive (empe music)

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:52 AM PDT

Boyronin - Oaktown Massive

As some of you may have gathered, this reviewer is often skeptical when the tag 'dubstep' is thrown around, as it is so much at the moment. After a few years of deliberation, an open mind, absorbing as much as I can in this time, I find I am drawn more to the fringes of dubstep, artists working outside of its often formulaic framework.

Boyronin have released the Oaktown Massive ep, containing four tracks of dark soundscapes, with as much bass pressure as the best of them. Hailing from Melbourne, Boyronin could draw comparisons to Jack Dangers recent experiments into dubstep, fresh and inventive beats, a very organic electronic sound, all underpinned by a sense of menace and paranoia. Its criminal that artists like Boyronin seem to slip under the radar, when they are evidently ahead of the pack.

Worth further investigation, especially on a massive soundsystem.

Wayne Stronell

Cheju - Broken Waves (Boltfish Recordings)

Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:22 AM PDT

Broken Waves is a collection of previously released limited edition compilation tracks for a wide variety of labels such as Static Caravan, Smallfish Records and the Boltfish label itself. Far from sounding like a collection of also ran tracks, though, the works, by Boltfish co-owner Wil Bolton in his Cheju guise, hang together seamlessly giving an overview of his warm and inviting version of glitchy electronica.

There is variety, as is to be expected in such a collection, from the pure sinetone electronics of ‘Conduit’ to the heavily processed piano of ‘Moiré’, rhythmic explorations with heavy bitcrushing such as ‘Object Not Found’ to mostly harmonic information of ‘Bracken’ with it’s gentler, simpler beats. What binds most of the pieces though, is a consistency of timbral grain. Cheju obviously loves his bitcrushing DSPs and deploys them almost universally across the tracks. His great success is that, where that description would often suggest a sonic harshness and music that repels the listener, Bolt contrasts the grit with beautiful chordal progressions on warm synths which give a great sense of intimacy (naturally heightened by the use of headphones - highly recommended).

The 12 original tracks are rounded out by three remixes he has done for other artists which, by their nature, take on slightly different hues based on the original versions but which demonstrate the strength of Bolt’s individual voice. For an introduction to the Cheju aesthetic, this collection is an excellent starting point.

Adrian Elmer