The few people who‘ve heard Binary Star‘s Masters of the Universe LP should already recognize the artist formerly known as OneManArmy as a highly underrated and talented lyricist, but S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. does little to develop the Pontiac, MI native‘s rep as an MC. While One‘s rhymes often lack the spark to make them stand out from the current underground hip-hop glut, his album is successful in establishing his Trackezoids production team (also including Decompoze, Mystik Legend, and Chic Masters), who come through with an array of gritty but soulful beats that should garner them a lot more work in the near future.
DACM Stereotypie
DACM, a collaboration between Mego heavyweights Peter Rehberg and vocalist Tujiko Noriko, had a lot of promise in concept, but the reality is a very one-sided exploration, with only two (although notably gorgeous) contributions from Ms. Noriko. The remaining nine tracks from Rehberg (alias Pita) rumble with sonic depth, some of a darker shade, others more predictable in their development and character. The high note of Stereotypie is “Birthday,” an amazingly deep 12-minute aural meditation. The track is a lot like Rehberg‘s masterpiece on Ash International‘s Mesmer compilation, which is currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Apparently, Pita‘s ambient gets better with age.
Johann Johannsson Virdulegu Forsetar
Johann‘s second album for Touch comes on the heels of his peerless new classical masterpiece, Englaborn, so certainly the expectations are immense. Those looking to see this effort continue the soaring melancholy of the first release will no doubt be satisfied, but by a thoroughly different approach. The album is broken into four long pieces that, in essence, work off the same horn/organ arrangement; they sublimely and powerfully affect the listener with the delicate attention to pacing, spacing, and weight. These arrangements are markedly different than Englaborn‘s shorter, more straight forward compositions, but the two albums are very similar in their use of modulated and delicate repetition. Without fail another brilliant release for Touch, and Iceland‘s most recent-and deserving-international star.
Koushik Be With
Koushik hasn‘t exactly stormed the scene as much as he‘s waded in, first with his brilliant 7″ for Kieran “Four Tet” Hebden‘s Text imprint two years ago (some of which is included here) and then as guest vocalist for Manitoba‘s Up In Flames record. And that chronology-from DJ Premier-gone-postrock to hazy, Sound Library-sampled pop-says something about the Canadian‘s trajectory. While it‘s true that many have tried and will try to do what Koushik has done-please don‘t call it psych-hop, thanks-few will succeed. Whether it‘s slept on or not, Be With is a masterpiece of subtlety and restraint.
Various Artists How to Kill The DJ [Part Two]
How to Kill the DJ [Part Two] chronicles the diversity of Scottish DJs Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes, who run club night Optimo. It‘s a little bit goth/synth (Laibach, Depeche Mode), a little club classics (“Can U Feel It,” Loose Joints), and a bit of punk (The Cramps, Revolting Cocks) tied together by minimal techno from the likes of Akufen, Villalobos, and Harco Pront; a second CD features obscure jams from Bush Tetras, Nouvelle Vague, and Arthur Russell. This isn‘t your average hands-in-the-air affair-it‘s a peaked-and-valleyed mix for those who require DJs to show context…and the depth of their record collections. Experienced record weasels need only apply.
Various Artists Disco Undead
Sometimes the best horror movie soundtrack is flat, soulless, and nauseous. The music gives you dry heaves, not screams. Disco Undead nails that point in its collection of ‘70s Italian horror flick soundtracks and John Carpenter scores revised as cute electro-pop fodder. To hear bedroom bores on vintage Rolands and Korgs trying to emulate the bloodied fingerprints of filmmakers Dario Argento and Lucio Fulchi is amusing at best. However, Solenoid retains the Suspiria theme‘s ungodliness and Le Syndicat/Electronique reminds us why Afrika Bambaataa sampled Carpenter‘s synth-funk from Assault on Prescient 13.
AGF/Delay Explode
“Her secrets/Make me feel/For some reason/Like a circus elephant/Trying to balance on a ball,” hisses Antye Greie-Fuchs. She could be describing herself in the third person, as Explode attests. This Berliner continues to brush her whispered memoirs and digital dub with paints that disintegrate in the wind-now with Vladislav Delay onboard. His insecure rhythms stagger and thud at a pace that constantly looks up to a parent for direction. AGF‘s haunted impressions of street life can either entice or be dismissed as postmodernist drivel. However, there are hints of sunshine here: the gutter-steam fantasia of “Recorded” and the flooded-city dub of “Useless.”
Harmonic 33 Music For Film, Television and Radio, Vol. 1
Harmonic 33 oddly piques nostalgia for the mid-‘90s retro revival of ‘60s “exotica.” On this ode to broadcast sound libraries, hip-hop producers Mark Pritchard and Dave Brinkworth revamp the atomic age clichés that sold romance, spectacular death, and Martian existence in movies, sitcoms, and radio serials. However, they eschew the sampler in favor of concocting everything from scratch. Their devotion is amazing-each melodramatic harpsichord melody and Moog doodling is indistinguishable from the LPs that clutter Goodwill thrift shops. Yet the album jumps between funeral wakes and UFO dogfights so much that your guests will mistakenly blame the martinis for their upset stomachs.
Pita Get Off
“Babel” is the ultimate Pita song. Peter Rehberg trash-compacts a game show horn blast that shoots 100 feet in the air and then shatters into a thousand pieces. He struggles to resurrect the corpse, but quits when it‘s a hassle. That fine abuse of electricity and nerve appears on Get Off, his third “Get” album (after Get Down and Get Out). Rehberg‘s handiwork veers from plangent, bell-rung drones to nose-blown hits of feedback and digital mulch. Just don‘t take him seriously-his drone piece that sounds like nuclear fallout lathering a city is titled “Like Watching Shit on a Shelf.”
The Connection Machine Painless
Not content with releasing the best contemporary “Detroit” techno, Dutch artists are now unleashing work from their archives that demonstrates that they‘ve always had a flair for electronic music at its most emotive and soulful. 154 initiated the trend, dropping the Strike LP-produced during Dutch techno‘s early ‘90s first wave-at the tail-end of 2004. Painless, the creation of duo Jeroen Brandjes and Natasja Hagemeier, was put together during the same period for release on Planet E, but the record never hit the racks. Thankfully, Texan imprint Downlow has ensured that it finally will-great news for all concerned.
