Cyclic Defrost Magazine

The Division – Mantras (Lens Records)
Various Artists – Manoeuvres 3 (So Called Recordings)
“Domestic Felines & Fringe Dwellers” – Extended Playlist 280909 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM
Christopher Hipgrave – Day (Home Normal)

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 04:20 PM PDT

The Division is the new project of Matthew Schultz, formerly of Lab Report. Hailing from Chicago, Schultz has played with numerous underground luminaries over the years, including Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chris Connelly and Lydia Lunch. Mantras is apparently the first in a projected trilogy of albums which will investigate an ancient Order. This first CD explores a terrain of dark ambient spaces, ghostly tribal rhythms and unusual Middle Eastern instruments.

‘Do What Thou Wilt’ (a nod to Aleister Crowley) features tribal percussion and an eastern sounding instrument like an oud, overlaid with smooth, droning synth lines. ‘Incantation One’ begins with gongs and cymbal clashes, which are joined by another plucked ethnic instrument, and muezzin wails. ‘Life’ with its driving syncopated rhythm and thin reedy sounds (sampled rhaitas?) sounds not unlike Talvin Singh’s collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka. ‘Monks’ is based around low droning vocal samples – creating a sombre, oppressive feel similar to early Current 93.

This can be recommended to all fans of ethno-ambient soundclashes and the lighter side of industrial music.

Ewan Burke

The Division – Mantras (Lens Records) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Various Artists – Manoeuvres 3 (So Called Recordings)

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 04:32 PM PDT

The production on this compilation of British Columbian electronica is impressive – which is why I’m not trashing it out of hand. It’s this quality that leads me to forgive the completely inane vocals on Dreamboats’ ‘Townies or Sinewaves’ and 'Exploded Notes'. These tracks are extraordinarily tight and masterful takes on electronica within pop domains. Christer's 'Kooch' is of a similar impulse but destroys that appreciation with its simplistic, over-saturated sonics. The saccharine vocal dose is of such a destructive quality that it would regress adults into an infantile state with ease.

Michael Red's 'Top Score' is a familiar acidic techno approach that encapsulates the idea of the video game to which the title alludes. Ookpikk's 'Cloud Gang' approaches angular funk techno and manipulates form excellently with vocoder like processing of melodic forms into metallic forms. Taal Mala's 'Bangface' is an insistent and well formed version of contemporary techno that still has the reminiscent forms of early Detroit sound dripping off it's imprint. Mikverde's 'Riding my bike at night' is a trance techno form taken to the anthemic and is followed by Telefuzz's 'Slept on the Shores' as if a steadfast partner guiding you from the heights to the light of day from the realm of the constructed mythic.

The final two tracks on the album, Intrinsic Warriors’ 'Of The Sun' and Elonious Funk's 'Rose Black's Shadow' are the standouts on the album. 'Rose Black's Shadow' is impressive for it's humour and wide appreciation of music that integrates hip-hop, opera, exotica, funk and 70s beach rock pageantry.

While as a compilation this has a wide range and represents contemporary electronic music from Vancouver and British Columbia, it also represents the sound of college radio orientation. It is quite youthful both in its content and development and target market, but it doesn’t represent any new musical form except an attempt at good time party vibes and popularity.

Innerversitysound

Various Artists – Manoeuvres 3 (So Called Recordings) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

“Domestic Felines & Fringe Dwellers” – Extended Playlist 280909 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM

Posted: 29 Sep 2009 06:18 PM PDT

Felix da Housecat – Some Kinda Special
("Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album!" – 1995, Radikal Fear)

Broadcast – Message From Home
("Work And Non Work" – 1997, Warp)

Grasscut – Sorel Point
("High Down" – 2009, Ninja Tune)

Anti Pop Consortium – Volcano (Four Tet Remix)
("Volcano" single – 2009, Big Dada)

James Duncan – Colours
("Hello-Fi" – 2009, Round Trip Mars)

Tyondai Braxton – Opening Bell
("Central Market" – 2009, Warp)

The Nits – Different Kitchen
("New Flat" – 1980, CBS)

Rita Mitsouko – Amnésie
("Rita Mitsouko" – 1984, Virgin)

Sankt Otten – Lustig, lustig, demain encore lustig
("Morgen wieder lustig" – 2009, Hidden Shoal Recordings)

The Art of Noise – Comes And Goes
("Into Battle With The Art Of Noise" – 1983, ZTT)

Buraka Som Sistema – IC19 (Toadally Crossed Out Remix)
("IC19 (Mad Decent Remixes)" single – 2009, Fabric)

Chicks on Speed – Extended Paintbrush
("Cutting The Edge" 2xCD – 2009, Chicks On Speed)

Garçons – French Boy
("ZE 30: ZE RECORDS Story 1979-2009" compilation – 2009, Strut) (original 1979)

Mouse on Mars – Subsequence
("Idiology" – 2001, Thrill Jockey Records)

Bauhaus – Scopes
("Terror Couple Kill Colonel" single – 1980, 4AD)

Anal Magic & Rev. Dwight Frizzell – Pre-Transformation Of Turtle To Bird
("Beyond The Black Crack" – 1998, Paradigm Discs) (original 1976)

Nocturnal Emissions – CH’i Tor
("Stoneface" – 1989, Parade Amoureuse)

Nurse With Wound & Aranos – Either Open Or Unsound
("Acts Of Senseless Beauty" – 1997, United Dairies)

Jørgen Plaetner – Beta
("The Wire Tapper 22" compilation – 2009, Wire Magazine) (original 1962-63)

Do you like our playlists?
>Produce your own music?
>>Send us your demos:
ollo/Extended Play
PO Box 292
Enmore NSW 2042
Australia

“Domestic Felines & Fringe Dwellers” – Extended Playlist 280909 – www.2ser.com 107.3FM is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Christopher Hipgrave – Day (Home Normal)

Posted: 30 Sep 2009 04:34 PM PDT

If you were to look for a method to distinguish one form from another in electronic music, it would be similar to a Turing test. “Does the form of expression exhibit an intelligence that can prove sentience, and, by what means can one discern it to be such?” Christopher Hipgrave demonstrates a positive sonic test score in that it is clear there is design in the sound – he is not merely a software jockey but someone who programs to create sound. Not that he is alone in this area but as it turns out, it creates as much a difference to the reception of music as it does to furniture design.

A software designer who created in this area would be able to give you an evaluation of the approaches to algorithmic composition that Hipgrave utilises in this album. Perhaps they would talk to you about granular synthesis and the state of microsound development. A sound designer would be able to tell you of the sonic immersive qualities and techniques that make this album an advanced and alive contemporary form.

Listening to Day is an act similar to the act of the experience of poetry: it reveals a world of brittle delicacy that the presence of symbols as descriptions are almost enough to destroy that of which is alluded. I can't quite place why this is or convey it beyond the notion that Hipgrave takes ambient microsound to this space where the rational encapsulation of technique approaches ineffable qualities. As such there seems to be little more to say about the album, it is a bright shimmering rare gem, a pleasure to listen to and a reminder of the great beauty to be created, shared and appreciated in this world.

Innerversitysound

Christopher Hipgrave – Day (Home Normal) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.