Sunday, June 28, 2009

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

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Various Artists – Brand Neu! (Feraltone/Inertia)

Posted: 28 Jun 2009 02:10 PM PDT

It’s a great shame that the entire contribution of Neu! to contemporary music has been reduced to a single rhythm conceit – the grand Motorik. While the liner notes of this compilation sees many of its contributors acknowledge the Germans’ contributions to everything from graphic design to musical minimalism to electronic/electric hybrids, listening through to the tracks it quickly becomes apparent that it is the motorik that has been the main criteria for track selection. This is sometimes a blessing but more often a curse.

For a band like Oasis, this compilation has the positive effect of recontextualising their work into a more experimental frame. For most of their releases post their Britpop heyday, they have been criticised for being unfocused and self-indulgent. But their ‘Can You See It Now? (I Can See It Now)’ fits in snugly amongst bands with far greater underground credibility, it’s lack of pop hooks rendered redundant as they show an ability to roll along abstractly and atmospherically with the best (and add the very obvious nod to the Velvet Underground to their long catalogue of ‘Artists We’ve Ripped Off’). Pets With Pets probably come closest to straight Neu! pastiche with ‘We Only Found This Plate’, though I can’t help but find the obvious drop in tempo as the hi-hats switch from 8th beats to 16th beats and their drummer struggles to hold the timing annoying, no matter how many times I listen and try to read the “I wish I was faster” refrain as self effacing. By contrast, Foals seem to channel the ideas of Neu! rather than the actual sounds, to great effect. Cornelius gets all psychedelic-funky with ping-pong guitar improvisations over a juttery version of ‘that’ beat. Holy Fuck and Kasabian add a Kraftwerkian edge to their ‘Super Inuit’ and ‘Stuntman’ freakouts respectively. School Of Seven Bells do their thing on ‘Device (Feur M)’ (one of the few previously unreleased tracks in the set) with low-key electronics taking front and centre place, their usual shoegazing guitars a little more subdued than normal. The only other true rarity is the last ever track recorded by Klaus Dinger (Neu!’s drummer) before his death in 2008. It sounds like the demo it undoubtedly is, but is unhinged enough to hold its place (just).

I have mixed feelings about this compilation. When I originally heard rumours of it, I was truly excited at the prospect of particularly hearing one of my favourites, LCD Soundsystem, in the context of a Neu! tribute. But their contribution points out the downside of this compilation. ‘Watch The Tapes’ is, of course, a track I have heard over and over in my listening to their own album. The vast majority of these tracks are already released elsewhere on the different artists’ own releases, and are all their own work, not Neu! covers. This in itself, is not a problem – the tracks are, without exception, all great. But that curatorial process mentioned earlier becomes a problem. In this context, choosing all the tracks based on a level of allegiance to the motorik means that each artist ends up sounding less inspired than they actually probably were when creating their tracks. Instead of the motorik being but one of countless influences colouring their own long form releases, it reduces them all to sounding like they’ve unimaginatively ripped off the exact same thing.

I really love the music found on this disc. But my recommendation (granted – a much more expensive and involved one) would be to track down the separate releases by each of the artists to hear them in a broader context, and to, of course, get the original Neu! albums. I think this would give a much truer indication of Neu!’s influence and the scope of where their blueprints have been taken by these diverse artists. It would also alleviate the horrible notion, (no doubt) inadvertently propagated by this compilation, that Neu! themselves were merely one-trick ponies.

Adrian Elmer

Lullatone – Songs that Spin in Circles (Audio Dregs Recordings)

Posted: 28 Jun 2009 04:50 AM PDT

adr074_Sleeve art 02
It is easy to be completely taken by Lullatone's sixth album, bright lullabies constructed in deceptively simple presentations. The basic concept for this album is akin to the first track 'A Mobile Over Your Head', in that it is a child's toy for fascination, and a device to lull to sleep. Also the construction of the pieces has a charming minimalist cyclical approach that incorporates its subtle changes amongst bright gleaming surfaces of revolving intertwined tonal plays. The use of vocal cycles, mostly intonations, sometimes tongue clicks or shhh’s, adds to this effect and has a genuine charm. The bossa nova of 'A Plastic Bag in the Wind' is particularly compelling; its childlike intonation attunes to lullaby purpose while hiding the formal aspects, rendering it somehow perceptually naïve. It like others are the beautiful lies we intone to youth, hiding the dark aspects of humanity and the world we lull them to sleep with bright happy songs of constructed joy, hoping that the gleam will never rub off.

'A Merry-Go-Round in the Park' is a quiet instrumental with heartbeat and glockenspiel like simplicity, a few effects and the introduction of drifting tones. 'An Old Record on its Player', gives the soft crackle loop of a finished record on a non return arm of an old player as the sopherific tone and melds it with bright wrought sine waves. 'A Carousel on a Slide Projector' again has the tuned down tones of a slow music box delivery, with slightly warped or muffled tones. 'The Whole World While You Are Asleep' is the perfect ending to the idea, with muted wind chime like melodies and an intermittent lapping wave recurrence all doused in a sonic cotton wool.

Lullatone consist of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Seymour from Nagoya and their album is a concept based on the music for babies idea, in particular their first born child. Their specific musical orientation has found them being a perfect partner to the Hello Kitty Brand having released two ep's in conjunction with this brand. It has also found them on childrens TV programs in Japan as well as well respected indie labels around the world. Their 'Minimalism is Cute' mantra of conceptual construction and orientation finds easy and willing listeners to this well wrought optimism.

Innerversitysound

Cernlab – 52.09 (electroton)

Posted: 28 Jun 2009 01:11 AM PDT

electroton
Hailing from Karlsrhue Germany, Marek Slipek, a communications designer, also conducts a lab for sound research and conceptual design with cernlab. Firstly it is not exactly clear that the cernlab referred to is indeed the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), or a project of Marek Slipek that references the name as a form of homage. However if you refer to the principles of Slipek's cernlab listed below, especially the fifth, it doesn't seem like an exceptional concern.

52.09 is a nine track album released on Nuremberg based Electron and consists of tracks marked delay 01-09. The tracks hold together in the stylistic manner similar to the device names: acid, electro, trip hop and minimal techno. The rhythms are often exploratory beyond these stylistic constraints; the sounds are honed to a precision and form that exudes the long performance history aspects to Slipeks art. Cavernous and industrial often, yet the sounds sparkle and glisten, in difference to the bleak take these sound concepts usually hold. An often ominous or immanent atmosphere is created by the conjunction of patterned repetitions, which build a psychological tension and leave residual trace. There is a wide influence of dub in the album within its formal construction and its affinity with sculptured bass forms as inherent to its identity. A predominate emphasis is on a textural interplay of rhythms, whether they be crushed frequencies, crackles, bright full tones, signal like or sharp beats. There is a significant amount of construction that suggest that the 101/303/909 are the key instruments that have influenced Slipek's musical development and he masters the vocabulary of sounds developed from these machines in the 90's with an aplomb not necessarily evident in the decade itself.

Generally speaking it is a well wrought musical form within the realms of musical forms that are not necessarily the immediate currency of today. But I still eat bread even though people tell me it holds little nutritional content and is really a form of delivering glue to your stomach. Given that perhaps we can never know of the true value of our work except in retrospect through another's eyes I leave you with cernlabs self-definition in five sentences:

"First: I am because I calculate
Second: computer crashes caused by exceptional errors are part of the system
Third: there would be boredom without error
Fourth: fortuity is an inevitably occurrence based on the immutable laws of nature
Fifth: the sun is blue, if everyone agrees on it"

Innerversitysound

Bolaphone – The Four Rabbits EP (self released)

Posted: 27 Jun 2009 08:18 PM PDT

Bolaphone - The Four Rabbits

Bolaphone is a beatsmith from the Czech Republic, I first stumbled upon his abstract beats through his releases on the Ground Floor Records net label, and later through commmunications and musical exchanges on a forum we both frequent. He’s an all round nice guy, humble and hard working, and he gives us his music for free, so we have to listen yeah? Well, we should, because he approaches his abstract productions from a different angle than most, offering a fresh pallette of sounds and textures.

The new EP, The Four Rabbits contains four tracks showing the Bolaphone beats, each one varied, plucked from film noir and other darker reaches, fleshed out with intricate and subtle electronics and processed sound, building to a growl. The organ is a prominent instrument for this EP giving a live jam feel to the compositions, elevating the tracks from not just beatscapes, but a soundtrack to an unmade movie.

With great haste, get over to www.bolaphone.net or www.myspace.com/bolaphon and link yourself with The Four Rabbits, and add some abstraction to your day.

Wayne Stronell

Monk Fly – Streetisms Volume 1 (The Frequency Lab)

Posted: 27 Jun 2009 07:12 PM PDT

Monk Fly - Streetisms Vol 1

Monk Fly is a Sydney producer, DJ and musician influenced by everything from jazz, hip hop, dubstep, jungle, wonky beats and environmental sounds. Monk Fly, together with fellow bass-head Jonny Faith, hosts For The Heads, Sydney's only weekly future beats radio show, and also the only regular club night, Headroom, dedicated to exploring the outer reaches of wonky abstract beat territory.

Following on from his acclaimed dubstep 12" release, An Afternoon With Camilla, Streetisms Volume 1 further develops Monk Fly's take on dubstep, incorporating wonky abstract beats not unlike those of Flying Lotus, Rustie, Quarta 330 and Zombie. The first in a two part series dedicated to investigating the gritty, lo-fi bottom end of bass music.

This digital only release offers up five fresh new tracks, destined to cement his name as a producer to watch, the production sounds massive, I just can't wait to hear this on a big sound system! In the interim, go check out a recent two part live laptop set at www.fortheheads.blogspot.com.

Wayne Stronell

wiQwar – wiQwar (Warnotwah Recordings)

Posted: 27 Jun 2009 07:08 PM PDT

wiQwar

Musician/producer Russell Wickwars has gained quite a reputation for his live shows, with help from his brother Lewis, showcasing their laptop/guitar/ukulele sets alongside artists such as King Creosote, David Thomas Broughton, This Is The Kit, The Owl Service, Nancy Wallace and Essie Jain at festivals throughout Europe, including the Fence Collective's Homegame Festival in Fife. Radio has been kind to the Norwich based musicians also, BBC Norfolk being big fans, as well as Australia's own Sideways Through Sound Radio show.

The sound encompasses diverse musical influences, the obvious being folk and traditional celtic ancestry, creating a whimsical pop folk landscape. All their sounds come from home-made recordings of acoustic instruments, including beaten guitars, melodica, ukulele, glockenspiel, kalimba and a vast array of percussion, all processed, sequenced and built into beats and soundscapes, accompanying finger picked guitar melodies drawing comparisons to Rick Tomlinson (Voice Of The Seven Woods), Tunng and Zak Riles.

There is a folk-art, DIY, cottage industry ethic in everything about this release, from the multitude of acoustic instruments played well, and sometimes not so well, to lo-fi made at home approach to the production, and carried through to the cute diorama that's used for the cover art work.

A beautifully relaxing record of soothing soundscapes and melodies, it makes you feel a contentment with life.

Wayne Stronell

at 5:03 PM