Florian Hecker is a leading man among the computer music enthusiasts, deservedly winning the 2003 Prix Ars Electronica for his last full-length, Sun Pandamonium. PV Tracks, on the other hand, could use some mincing. It does not, on any level, work as an LP-it’s entirely shapeless at the macro level, utterly engaging at the micro. The amorphousness of the whole detracts from the component parts, even as you engage it more intensely, but try not to let this take away from the runic and spectral qualities of the sound Hecker conjures on the most profoundly space-cosmic album I’ve heard this year.
Christian Kleine Real Ghosts
Germany’s Kleine, of Herrmann & Kleine fame, initiates a new direction with his second solo effort, away from the plink-plonk of past expeditions. One misses the Dr. Seuss of electrics as he trifles with more conventional rock and roll arrangements. There are moments of euphoric and no doubt delightful gain, but the directness of this album is too symmetrical, truncating his vision at precisely the wrong moments. Real Ghosts leaves one haunted with nostalgia for the past, while remaining entirely respectful of the present and Kleine’s musical acumen.
Steel Pulse African Holocaust
It’s been seven years since Steel Pulse’s last proper studio album, which rightfully garnered a Grammy nod, and 26 since their groundbreaking debut, which remains a critical highpoint. On African Holocaust, these British Rastafarian heavyweights remain a force-political, rootsy and polished as ever. Conceivably, this would be the only complaint about the album-the studio work serves up none of the grimy soul that typically radiates from roots reggae, or the band’s live shows. While the arrangements and lyrical content are top notch, one can sense a maturity and buffed clarity to David Hinds’ reggae vision that some may find slightly alienating.
The Emperor Machine The TV Extra Band
The third 12″ leading up to the debut album finds Andy “Chicken Lips/Big Two Hundred” Meecham in fine form. The A-side title track is just what you’d expect from him: an infectious bassline riding astride simple, functional punky dance beats and a smattering of keyboard shards making like Giorgio Moroder gone mad at Black Ark. B-side “Bloody Hell”‘s shuffle will make T. Raumschmiere and Kompakt heads blush.
Dahlback & Dahlback Sweden 1 Canada 0
Jesper and cousin John Dahlback don’t push things nearly as hard, but they do get the acid just right, notably on Naslund’s “Final Trip,” a delectable slice of underground resistance. Also of techno note: Juan Atkins’ appropriately titled “Rebound” EP (on Bone’s Subject Detroit imprint) lives up to its name in fine style, especially on the rubbery glissando of the title track.
J.O.Y. Sunplus
Abandoning the disco punk groove for a moment, DFA’s most delightful moment in some time comes from former Major Force West members J.O.Y. and collaborator Yoshimi from The Boredoms in the form of a Sugarcubes/Slits-style jam that edges out the DFA remix for sheer panache. Also new on DFA, defunct trio Pixeltan gets the posthumous death disco treatment which we’ll be hearing too many times this year. Then again, it could be much worse.
Wolf Eyes Burned Mind
One of the most notorious noise groups to arise from underground American cassette culture, Ann Arbor, MI’s Wolf Eyes has produced somewhere around 50 recordings since their first release in 1996. Chronicled on their own Hanson and American Tapes labels as well as hot shit imprints such as Bulb and Troubleman, the current trio of Aaron Dilloway, Nathan Young and John Olson specializes in the kind of post-apocalyptic, glass-shattering, over-amplified sludge howl that you thought only came to you in nightmares. And Burned Mind is no exception. Reference points Throbbing Gristle, New Blockaders, Whitehouse and Swans may provide clues, but the pure horror of Burned Mind must be experienced firsthand to fully understand.
DMX Krew The Collapse Of The Wave Function
Ed DMX can pack more excitement into a “mini-album” than most people could if they had 19 tracks to fill. And it’s a testament to this electro stalwart’s consummate skill that, within two minutes of putting needle to this wax, three XLR8R staffers popped their heads into my office, ears cocked, and asked what I was listening to. The Collapse… finds Ed operating with many of the same tools he uses to make his classic Detroit poplocking soundtracks, but throwing away the formula. The record contains brooding beatless soundscapes, shimmering and kinetic downtempo acid and dark bodyrock, but hits its stride with the bittersweet synthetic lullaby “Jet Lag” and “Tonight (Track),” which almost sounds like a dub version on an old Depeche Mode single. The Collapse… makes the familiar sound fresh again. It’s not groundbreaking, but it doesn’t have to be-it’s infinitely listenable, instead. Looks like DMX cribbed notes from friends’ (Plaid, Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert) classic albums, added his own flavor, and then aced the test.
Einsturzende Neubauten Kalte Sterne-Early Recordings
Einsturzende Neubauten harvested punk rock from the weed patches, trespasser graves and broken concrete that surrounded the Berlin Wall. They literally made “industrial” music with drills, sanders and junk metal. Kalte Sterne compiles the band’s early singles from 1980-82; it documents their birth as urban primitives banging away tribal rhythms with leader Blixa Bargeld throwing tantrums and whip-cracking his guitar like a sweatshop foreman. “Aufrecht Gehen” stands out for its haphazard locked groove, while “Pygmaeen” offsets samples of triumphant orchestras with barbarians attacking the opera house. Kalte Sterne is more vital than the work of the “industrial rock” scabs who later bankrupted the factory.
Various Artists Broken Hearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica From Southeast Asia
These compilations may be this year’s most remarkable. Cambodian amasses tapes of Cambodian music salvaged from an Oakland, CA, library. The songs, combining traditional Khmer folk with garage-rock, schmaltzy synth-pop and even arena metal, were recorded in and outside Cambodia between the ’60s and ’90s-during Pol Pot’s genocidal reign. While the music celebrates the good life, there is still sadness in knowing that many of these artists were buried in the killing fields. Broken Hearted contains untreated field recordings of Southeast Asian insect populations. The swarms create timbres akin to synthesizer patches, brilliantly dissolving the distinction between the electronic and the organic.
