In 2002 German producers Barbara Morgenstern (collaborator with Pole and Console) and Robert Lippok (of To Rococo Rot) cooperated for a Domino Records subsidiary; the 12-track Tesri is the result of continued sessions. The album is comprised of melodies constructed in miniature. Where the duo thinks big is in overlapping fragments of staccato electric piano, fluttery acoustic guitar, rounded analog pulse, and minimalist electro bob. “Sommer” (showcasing the most hushed, honeyed, and hovering of Morgenstern‘s qualities) and “Winter” are original collaboration holdovers, with everything else exclusive. Small melodies attracting big-time attention include “Please Wake Me Up For Meals,” “Gammelpop,” and the Spacek-like croon of “If The Day Remains Unspoken” (featuring Telefon Tel Aviv‘s Damon Aaron).
Minotaur Shock Maritime
Four Tet and Caribou (née Manitoba) may have forsaken acoustica to make engaging odes to freakbeat percussion, but Bristol‘s David “Minotaur Shock” Edwards still wields a jaunty calliope of a laptop as a lasting cornerstone of the folktronica movement. Indeed, fans of whimsical, warbling melodies will find Maritime is plenty shipshape. Beats peck, shuffle, and skip; synths roll, shimmer, and flutter. Is that timpani? A vibraphone? Clarinet? A seagull‘s caw? Certain tracks, with their soft focus instrumentation, even seem to have a Trevor Horn touch to them, balanced out by some Moroder oscillations-and all of it set adrift on memory bliss.
T. Raumschmiere Blitzkrieg Pop
If you‘re a fan of tightly orchestrated, synth-stylized staccato instrumentation that broods rather than blurts, Nine Inch Nails‘ With Teeth may well be your album of 2005. But if you miss the days where pretty hate machines were sleazy and buffeting rather than melodramatically swelling and sulking, then dig your nails into the Blitzkrieg Pop of Berlin‘s T. Raumschmiere. The serrated opening track, “Sick Like Me” (featuring Raumschmiere‘s own vocals), could be an alternate take of NIN‘s caustic “Wish” (off 1992‘s Broken). Throbbing “Diving in Whiskey” (featuring Ellen Allien on vocals) and “A Very Loud Lullaby” are kin to Metropolis Records-style EBM. Tracks such as “All Systems Go!” and “Der Grottenholm” still co-opt Kompakt Records‘ schaffle beat, but for the most part Blitzkrieg Pop celebrates the corroded trills of vaguely Gothic retro even over Raumschmiere‘s own gnarled glam stomp. Writhe, you skinny puppies, writhe.
Various Artists Earth: Legacy of Dissolution
No Quarter-the label reissuing Seattle-based stasis-metal project Earth‘s notorious live album, Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars-further celebrates the ambient/doom metal group with remixes. Earth‘s songs are geodes: unevenly textured and densely gilded, they‘re self-contained wonders formed through a pressurized gauntlet. Even Godflesh and Sabbath quiver. Earth‘s core, Dylan Carlson, has handpicked six producers-Mogwai, Russell Haswell, Jim O‘Rourke, Autechre (who create, oddly, the most rhythmically “rock” remix), Justin Broadrick, and Sunn0))) (once an Earth tribute band)-who understand hum, delay, and decay can matter as much, if not more, than any note. Mosaic constellations of white dwarves, the remixes of Earth are like trudging mournfully through pixilated, crystallized supernova remnants, and would make the Melvins and Fennesz proud.
Various Artists Lali Puna: I Thought I Was Over That (Rare, Remixed and B-Sides)
The music of Munich‘s Lali Puna (featuring The Notwist‘s seemingly ubiquitous Markus Acher) is like being teased with a rabbit fur flogger: there‘s a snap to the Teutonically informed electro-pop, but any impact is far more supple than unsettling. And Lali Puna‘s last album, Faking The Books, was a real looker. So can you improve on the chirping goodness? No. But artists including Bomb The Bass (a skulking highlight), Boom Bip, Two Lone Swordsmen (crunchy), Sixtoo, Alias, Dntel (another, bouncier highlight), and To Rococo Rot reinterpret the songs as melodic lopes both rubbery and rigid, at times dubby and others blunted. Throw in a smattering of jittery b-sides (“40 Days” and “Together in Electric Dreams” being tops) and purring, Lali Puna-composed remixes (for Boom Bip, Dntel, the Swordsmen) and you‘ve got a collection of pleasantly dawdling vignettes-not as vivacious as the steady jangle of Faking The Books, but worth a flick or three.
Various Artists Grime 2
The age-old compilation conundrum, not surprisingly of little concern to the headstrong Rephlex massive: to provide an overreaching summation of the matter at hand (London‘s grime scene) or to hyper focus the lens on atom-splitting specifics? Choosing the latter, a scant three artists showcase their bass (Kode 9, Loefah, and Digital Mystikz), all linked through their attentive awareness to the nuances of urban music and their seductively sly sublimation of those polished sounds. Jiggy Eastern-fetishizing hip-hop, smoooth acoustic guitar-strumming R&B, and the precision bass blasts of jungle all echo engrossingly throughout the nine tracks. As a scene-specific glimpse, conundrum solved. Verdict: essential.
Various Artists Bebel Gilberto Remixed
With Gilberto‘s first album, Tanto Tempo, remixed, it‘s unsurprising that her second should get the same treatment. Here, Gilberto (from Brazilian bossa royalty) again shows vocal versatility with help from remixers like DJ Spinna and Thievery Corporation (who turn in the restrained and outstanding “Cada Beijo”). In the hands of Latin Project, “Aganju” goes from its African-influenced original to a lounge-ready groove; Spiritual South less successfully takes the song into beat-heavy, more mechanized territory. Gilberto still hasn‘t matched her excellent first album-but it‘s (mostly) a pleasure to hear her try.
Telepopmusick Angel Milk
This album‘s strength is also its weakness: the French trio focuses so hard on texture that sometimes they slide into navel-gazing. Many tracks (“like Stop Running Away”) never really get going. But sometimes Angel Milk works, as on “Last Train To Wherever,” where breathy male vocals, slow synths, and harsh buzzing layer into an almost-tangible lushness, and “Love‘s Almighty,” where vocalist Angela McClusky sounds like a cross between Shirley Bassey and Esthero. There‘s enough meat here to say that Telepopmusick has avoided the sophomore album curse.
Luke Vibert Lover‘s Acid
Like new batteries juicing up a classic Atari console, Luke Vibert‘s trademark obsession with shifting rhythmic sequences makes these gritty, acid-tossed textures sound electrifying again. It‘s this veteran composer‘s keenness for shaping mood, however, that charges up his tracks with feeling; dark, eerie ambiance opens “Prick Tat,” only to ebb into something wistful and bittersweet. Traces of Vibert‘s ambient hip-hop persona Wagon Christ and nods to the early work of pals Aphex and µ-Ziq float throughout these melodic pieces like friendly specters. “Analord” and “Come On Chaos,” in particular, affectionately revisit a time when techno music was just beginning to emerge in its own right.
Double U A Bottle In The Sea
Last year, Franck “Double U” Rabeyrolles quietly delivered one of the least-noticed, most stirring electronic debuts with his intensely lonely Life Through A Window. Rabeyrolles‘ sophomore effort continues his exploration of the fragile space between folk, ambient melody, and poetry with a noticeably less electronic edge than his previous work. Rabeyrolles keeps his music from sounding precious by drawing upon both the whimsical and the deeply personal, resulting in pieces like “Such A Cry,” which strongly channels Ms. John Soda and Prefuse 73 after 10 Valiums and folk singing lessons.
