Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Jega – Variance Volume 1 & 2 (Planet Mu/Inertia)
Joseph Bertolozzi – Bridge Music (Delos/Naxos)
MC Maguire – Trash of Civilizations (Innova)

Jega – Variance Volume 1 & 2 (Planet Mu/Inertia)

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 04:30 PM PDT

Variance Volume 1 & 2 is Dylan Nathan’s long awaited third album, after a leaked, unfinished album prompted a rewrite that took six years (you can even tell by the early catalogue number still intact!). A double album split in intensity and focus, the first volume offers a more melodic laid back affair and the second volume darker with a more intense beat driven futurism.

‘Soulflute’ opens the first volume with rolling slow drum patterns, melodic colouring, cut up garage style vocals and combinations of intricacies in beat programming. The detail on this volume alone is dense, weaving ambient jungle forms with a lush psychedelic mood, intense melodic brightness and understated form advances. In some ways it is just too full and almost indulgent in that it wavers towards sweet forms that just hold back from playing you into a cushioned prison. ‘Dreams’ is a beatwise inclusion on this volume that holds back on the full spectrum assault, and concentrates on its beat focus. ‘Aquaminie’ drops into warped out beat weirdness and bright tone wonder. The volume reads as a whole as a psychedelic ambient jungle b-boy’s sonic dream.

Volume two introduces the shift immediately. ‘Tensor’ opens long, dark and stretched waveforms, smashed beats, wavering melody lines and a hint of sinister that is to come. But that is the perceived tone: the focus is on advanced technique, a hard, danceable form with an unwavering commitment to advancement. ‘Chromadynamic’, packs all the punch from a hyper-game soundtrack, an intense layered beat style with semi-hidden classic hip hop samples. ‘Aerodynamic’ moves to more intense forms of jungle, all sharp wavering metallic forms laying out the development of Nathan’s programming.

Then it all becomes densely packed, a breakcore-inspired, wired out beat madness. It suits the Planet Mu imprint: a more Gameboy hip-hop style than stablemate Venetian Snares. Also in comparison the sculptural form of sound is more distinct and masterful than Aron Funks’ snarling apocalypse. If anything it is the sort of optimism, engagement with advanced technology and attention to detail expounded in a positive manner that makes this volume such a rewarding listening experience.

Innerversitysound

Jega – Variance Volume 1 & 2 (Planet Mu/Inertia) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Joseph Bertolozzi – Bridge Music (Delos/Naxos)

Posted: 05 Oct 2009 12:57 PM PDT

The final track on Joseph Bertolozzi’s literally titled ‘Bridge Music’ reveals the composer’s populist approach, Bertolozzi providing a blow-by-blow, or rather bash-by-bash ‘audio-tour’ of the tones used to create the album. It remains a tough sell: ‘Bridge Music’ builds on Bertolozzi’s solo percussion opus ‘The Bronze Collection’ originally performed at the 2004 US Open, constructing a ’symphony for suspension bridge’ of sounds sourced directly from the Mid-Hudson Bridge. Its an interesting concept: bridges are vast things, rich in sound-generating potential, and their function lends itself easily to artistic inspiration; unfortunately, ‘Bridge Music’ disappoints musically.

Bertolozzi readily admits that his project is not wholly original, and he’s happy to name his influences, most notably Harry Partch and Einsturzende Neubauten. You can certainly hear their work here, Partch in the many and varied marimba plinks of mallet on metal, Neubauten in the deep industrial clanging of resonant, heavily hammered steel. The tones created by the suspension cables sound like 303 pulses, and elsewhere Bertolozzi generates close analogues of a standard drum kit, from kick drum to splash cymbal. The resultant constructions resemble a kind of IDM/gamelan marriage: Aphex Twin-esque drill n’ bass blasts, 2-step rhythms, 4/4 bass thuds and spacious marimba passages, all crafted into neat, ordered patterns. The tightly wound taps of ‘Bridge Funk’ resemble raster noton unplugged, while ‘The Hudson Suite’ recalls ‘Bone-Machine’-era Tom Waits, although neither are particularly exciting. Clearly a sequencer was the major instrument at work here, and soon you forget that you’re hearing a bridge at all. Sandwiched into a brave instrumental hip-hop set it some of these pieces might work, but alone like this, it’s an uninspiring novelty album.

Joshua Meggitt

Joseph Bertolozzi – Bridge Music (Delos/Naxos) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

MC Maguire – Trash of Civilizations (Innova)

Posted: 04 Oct 2009 11:34 PM PDT

In electronic music minimalist restraint and orderliness reigns supreme, even noise artists tend to favour clean, streamlined routes, so maximalist music of the kind MC Maguire makes is both rare and unfashionable. This is understandable, there is little that is attractive in his crass mix of sounds and sources. You could argue that such a haphazardly bundled hodge-podge resembles the melting pot of the 21st century world city, but one comes away from ‘Trash of Civilizations’ with the same unpleasantly empty feeling as after TV channel-surfing. I guess then that it does resemble the 21st century world city.

The two long pieces of ‘Trash of Civilisations’ offer contemporary takes on the concept of the double concerto: ‘The Spawn of Abe’ for Bflat clarinet and oboe (played by Max Christie and Mark Rogers respectively), ‘Narcissus auf Bali’ for vibraphone and marimba (Trevor Tureski and Ryan Scott), with Maguire doing the orchestra on ‘CPU’. It’s fitting that he lists COU, as it’s Central Processing Unit, and not customary ‘laptop’, that Maguire plays: it’s stuffed to bursting with samples and effects, piled on until it resembles a smeared, fizzing digital wash. Maguire sets up interesting dialogues for these trios to operate: ‘The Spawn of Abe’ sets to work on East-West cliches, and the woodwinds do a wondrous battle, but 28 minutes is a lot to ask, Maguire’s seemingly endless arsenal of tools exhausting itself long before the real instruments can. ‘Narcissus auf Bali’ is initially more approachable, Tureski and Scott’s percussion recalling post-Reichians Tortoise in good moments, but Maguire’s tireless barrage of cosmic tones is very tiring. I imagine live these duels might prove engaging, but these recordings are excessive and very difficult to enjoy.

Joshua Meggitt

MC Maguire – Trash of Civilizations (Innova) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.