Sunday, August 30, 2009

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

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Alps – Alps Of New South Whales (Beat Is Murder)

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 09:57 AM PDT

I first encountered Chris Hearn – a.k.a. Alps – at an instore performance he gave in the late, lamented Sound And Fury record store in Surry Hills, Sydney. What I encountered were waves of mouldy distortion emanating from his ancient keyboard punctuated by rudimentary glockenspiel banging, mini disc backing beats and buried vocals. It was a warm and inviting. It was new folk music made on the cheap refuse instruments of the new century. I’ve seen him a few times in the years since, as have accumulated thousands on his almost never-ending world tours, and am always left with the same feeling and a huge smile on my face.

His recorded work, which I’ve also almost managed to keep a complete track of has, by comparison, been a slight disappointment, but I think this is mostly due to differing expectations on the function of a recording as opposed to a live set. Masked under washes of all things lo-fi, the sounds on his recordings are, by definition, detached from the listener. They have offered other cerebral pleasures, and important ones at that, but not the womb-like envelopment his live shows offer. Which brings me to his newest album, Alps Of New South Wales.

From the outset, ‘White Whale’ delivers something that comes very close to the feeling of Alps’ music live. The stereo spectrum is opened up, sounds are distinct and everything is enveloping. Fear not – this is not really a concession to anything commercial. The sound of whatever arcane machine was used to record is still present, the keyboard is still buried under 3 or 4 layers of warm overdrive, and there’s absolutely no risk of being able to decipher what is actually being sung. ‘MInke Whale’ offers a melody reminiscent of pop music buried under heavy delays and pulsing waves of synth. ‘North Atlantic Right Whale’ is built on a synth arpeggio that The Knife would be proud of and ‘Narwhal’ echoes Joy Division post-punk. Actually, what is most striking about this album is the breadth of styles explored and new techniques employed (are they live drums I hear clattering away on ‘Goosebeak Whale’?). Where previous releases have generally been explorations on a theme, there’s a breadth to Alps Of New South Whales that continually surprises and holds attention.

All of this might make it sound like some sort of gentrification of Alps’ sound. But it is not. It’s still resolutely lo-fi. What is different is that Hearn has learned how to make lo-fi work for his music, rather than be a slave to lo-fi as an escape clause. Where much noise/drone/improv pop can seem to hide off-the-cuff laziness behind a curtain of fizz, Alps Of New South Whales is a carefully crafted, hazy gem.

Adrian Elmer

Phasen – Listening to Old West Coast Rap (I, Absentee)

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 05:29 AM PDT

phasen
Florida producer Ryan Parmer throws another installment of his Phasen guise with cover and title that raise the expectations of bass heavy, electro tinged vocal rap. While Old West Coast Rap may have influenced his composition, there are elements of electro, although not in robust optimistic assertion of Old West Coast Rap, and there is definitely hip hop techniques. Tracks like plACID bring in the kickdrum, acid line and melodic tinkling that are a mile from any idea of the Jungle Brothers or De La Soul and more in the territory of Juan Atkins fused with early Warp. Listening to the album with the idea of a reminiscence of 'a golden age' colours the view of the album, indeed it is more helpful to examine an attunement to sound as if such ages never cease just shift focus and form and location. Any re-examination is a form of homage or recognition of who have come before, in the sense of 'respect' or acknowledgement of the 'shoulders of giants' on which Phasen stands.

After such an introduction it does seem that Phasen is working through styles and techniques as he easily wields electro, house, IDM, funk and hip hop into precise bright forms .It is as though he is waded through all the acknowledgement that has tuned his ear to catch up to his moment in time and form a distinctive impression. There are surprises beyond this assessment with 'Glass is a Liquid', breaking the mould with a sparse construction and guitar emphasis over deceptively simple drum machine and bare synth line. Also the ambient sampling within 'Cheaux', a faux piano and accordion number has a discrete charm that is displaced from a good deal of the tracks. Why it is placed between 'Discotek', an acid clap House track that would do Bob Sinclair proud and 'Guilded Kitten' a down tempo analogue acid squelcher with modulated strangeness for those early morning shuffles’ is a question that is unlikely to be answered . If the assessment of the album as homage is close to the truth it may be that Palmer has to be more adapt at moving out of the musical shadows cast by the reference and cultural debt he acknowledges on this album.

Innerversitysound

Loess – Burrows (n5MD)

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 04:35 AM PDT

nr005
Burrows is a compilation of 2000-2008 material for the Philadelphian duo Loess (Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman) comprising of remixes and unreleased material. This is prime material, well wrought atmospheric construction, succinct precise beats and patterns. High production values blur the line of this group beyond audio entertainment to sonic sculpture. Loess could easily be writing for film as their skill is suited to discrete immersive emotional manipulation and a large canvas.

Opening the compilation is ‘Lull’, it's brief reminiscence of ethno techno motifs, circa Yage/FSOL period, combined with elegant beatsmithing introduce their roots as IDM with rounded cultural awareness. Their reworking of Quench's 'Bud' is a low down minimal tech dub high on the reverb, mellow bright tones, chamber echoed . Whereas when approaching ‘Cyanor’ by Ontayso they emphasise the staccato sound pitching back and forward the melodic phrasing in an insistent compelling manner weaving elements underneath as nuance Their take on Gridlocks 'Chrometaphore' is in their more signature IDM style of crisp beats and syth colours washing distorted sonic planes towards the audience.

In that it is a compilation a certain amount of discontinuity is expected to the form of the album, however there are no disappointments here for any IDM attuned ear. They are of the rare group whose succinctness in style and technical precision leads one to be expectant of such qualities in all sounds. Burrows contains so much beauty, talent and achievement that it could constitute a tyranny that immobolises the listener, holding thrall like and highly satiated.

Innerversitysound

Diverted – Diverted (Air Recordings / Inertia)

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 12:39 AM PDT

Diverted

UK-based live breakbeat duo Diverted (aka Lee Richardson and Stephen Baxter) have managed to build a healthy profile amongst London’s breaks scene, thanks to their monthly live residency at London’s Air, as well as appearances at this year’s Breakspoll Awards, and they’ve managed to attract the patronage of Laurent Garnier and Radioactive Man, who asked them to remix a track off his recent ‘Gnash’ EP. While the duo have been active since 2004 however, releasing a steady stream of 12"s on labels including Sokolov Sounds and Rennie Pilgrem’s Thursday Club Recordings, it’s only just now that they’ve finally gotten around to releasing this self-titled debut album on Ali B’s Air Recordings label. In many senses, the eleven tracks collected here prove to represent something of a game of two halves.

While more the more or less straight nu-skool breaks oriented tracks here such as the Plump DJs-esque ‘Frederick’ and ‘Big Baby Fear’ don’t really contribute much in the way of anything new to a genre that’s pretty much been done to death at this point, it’s the moments where Diverted stray further away from the constraints of the breaks arena that really impress here. ‘Visions’ sees the duo joining forces with ex-pat Aussie MC Nine Lives The Cat for a juddering, paranoiac slice of fearsome dubstep-loaded hiphop that’s easily one of the biggest highlights here, while the delicate, jazz-tinged ‘Summer Hiding’ sits closer to being the sort of shuffling, downbeat offering you might expect from the likes of The Herbaliser, smoky sax solos and female soul vocals included. Hopefully, future releases from Diverted will see them venturing further into exploratory territory, as it’s the stylistically more adventurous moments on this debut that prove to arouse the interest factor the most.

at 5:42 PM