Frost is Aggie E. Peterson and Per Martinsen, aided in part by fellow Norwegian duo R?yksopp. No work is quite as animated as R?yksopp’s apex, “Eple” (though the tightly wound clickhouse spring of “Running Boy” nears in approach), but that amount of distraction wouldn’t complement Peterson’s Dido-ish vocals, which benefit from a gently flowing, multi-hued wrap of crystalline tones. A song such as “Half-Whole” uses melodic chords as delicate and wavering as the skin of a wind-rippled reflecting pool. Martinsen’s beats are more straightforward, calculated blip-pop (popular to listeners of Morr Music), and allow Peterson’s effervescent vocals a pane on which to condense. Melodica encapsulates the comfort of a sweater-weather keeper.
Her Space Holiday The Young Machines
With his third proper full-length (his first for Mush), Her Space Holiday composer Marc Bianchi has gone from charmingly earnest to brutally honest. On several tracks Bianchi comes across as pretty damn twee’d off, as vindictive as a man who breathily emotes over spacey synth ‘n’ sample symphonics can be. The string-swept sleepy grooves-several chirping stutters more popular in the wake of the Postal Service debut-are not so far removed from previous material as to render the album unrecognizable, but the bed sheets in which Bianchi tosses have turned noticeably frigid. The Young Machines is a break-up but not breakdown record, a captivating coping mechanism for those who can appreciate dream-pop mope-hop.
Various Feedback to the Future
With the ubiquitous resurgence of guitars in electronic music (yes, we see you Morr Music) and the ten years of silence required before the celebratory reviving of a dead genre, it’s time to tousle your hair, sling your guitar carpal tunnel-inducingly low and start shoegazing. Wryly named by music journalist Steve Sutherland after the bands’ penchant for introspective live shows, shoegazing preceded Brit Pop’s new optimism with walls of guitar feedback, amorphous floating vocals and subdued melancholy. Through their dense aural soakings, these bands shifted music’s propulsiveness from the drummer’s backbeat to the intricacies of sound, with devastating effect. This compilation, lovingly remastered by Pole, does an inimitable job of compiling the more notable moments from shoegaze’s heyday, including Ride’s Like a Daydream,” Lush’s “Deluxe” and Adorable’s “Sunshine Smile.” Sigur R?s don’t seem so great now, do they?
Twine S/t
With no cute cartoon cats or birds anywhere to be seen, Ghostly lays bare the cavernous depths of its spiralingly intense inner soul on this frighteningly stunning album. Drenched in echoing, eerie elements, saved from solipsism by startling sheaths of shimmering sound surges, Twine benefits from its singular approach to electronic music, where no clear reference points emerge. While some may be quick to proclaim terms like “glitch” or “IDM” from behind the imperial high horse of their record shop register, Twine seductively refutes them all with shimmering guitars, an enveloping electronic language and hazy female vocals. Essential.
Ricardo Villalobos Alcachofa
Ricardo Villalobos left his native Chile for Germany ages ago to DJ and produce. He lands before us now on the cusp of a new techno-a techno that’s clean as the minimal sound of Thomas Brinkmann or Cabanne, yet more sculpted than John Tejada or Akufen. We got a taste of it earlier this year, when Villalobos released his comp CD Taka Taka on Cocoon, but the real goods are on Alcachofa. Villalobos emphasizes the discreet space between individual sounds, resulting in sonic depth unencumbered by time (e.g. Plastikman’s Consumed). It makes the digitized vocals on “Easy Lee” float spectrally over unrelenting techno rhythms. It mercilessly throws the glitch-like machinations of “Bahaha Hahi” off quaking bass. And it positions the longing pulse of “What You Say Is More Than I Can Say” as zeitgeist for modernity’s rapacious love affair with technology. Highly recommended. “
PhTHALOCYANINE About This Product Trash Art
Like the early Zacks EP and 2000’s 25 Tracks Fer 1 Track on Planet Mu, Phthalocyanine’s About embraces experimental sound while shunning the academic. So you must either crave massive levels of dada bass, feedback and static that struggle in tandem to adopt physical form, or revel in complex sample overlays enrapt in the drama of culling meaning from their imploded sonic imprint in order to get past the album’s caustic exterior. It’s a battle royale between chaotic noise and musical structure, one so exquisite it’ll make your ass hurt.
John Tejada & Arian Leviste The Dot & The Line
Motor City-influenced John Tejada might be the most unlikely resident of LA’s electronic scene. His newest album with longtime co-producer Arian Leviste offers classic Tejada tech-house stylings: smooth, lean grooves swiped with breakbeats, catchy loops and very clean production. As might be expected, some tracks are better suited as DJ mixing material, such as the driving “Brio,” which offers great jacking house grooves that don’t move in any particular direction. Standout cuts include the riveting “Stereographic Mix Up,” a hypnotizing exercise in strapping minimalism, and “Language Barrier,” which dissolves upbeat stabbing synths into moody, melodic techno. Check the old-school Detroit vibe of “Throwback,” which keenly hearkens to Tejada’s more appropriate musical home.
I: Cube 3 I: Cube 3
The French might find themselves in political disfavor with the US at the moment, but there’s no question that their house music underground continues to outshine most of the world. Gilb’r’s Versatile imprint offers a strong case in point-it’s home to veteran producer Nicolas “I:Cube” Chaix, unquestionably one of the greatest finds of our electronic age. The eclectic I:Cube 3 moves from house to hip-hop and even folky acoustic, but Chaix binds it all together with a masterful understanding of rhythm that recalls another French great, Laurent Garnier. Check “Oblivion” to hear Chaix’s trademark knack for piercing lounge atmospheres with taut deep house, and the whimsical “Vacuum Jackers,” which suddenly closes with the sound of a vacuum cleaner turning off. Stunning.
Various Astor Piallozza Remixed
It takes two to tango, and this superb compilation proves that even if the two are separated by several decades and a few oceans, the music can still be magic. Organized by Jean Christophe Chamboredon for Milan Records, a Los Angeles label specializing in soundtracks, Astor Piazzolla Remixed pulls together a rich collection of artists known for their open-border approach to production, and lets them loose with the original master tapes of Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla was born in Argentina in 1921, but spent his first fourteen years in New York, where he began to play the bandoneon, the distinctive accordian-like instrument characteristic of the tango, while soaking up the huge array of music available. Piazzolla’s own music was something of a remix project before the phrase, for upon his return to Argentina, he combined elements of jazz, classical and folk to forge “nuevo tango,” much to the dismay of some of his contemporaries who did not want anyone toying with their national dance. Fortunately, Piazzolla ignored his critics, and went on to create a massive body of work filled with a passion that continues to inspire others 10 years after his death. “Not only is it an honor to remix Astor Piazolla [but] I’m lucky to be in the company with all of the other great producers and composers on this project,” said Detroit-LA native John Beltran (Ubiquity, Transmat), whose hypnotic re-rub of “Revirado” features light production to great effect, letting strings swirl mysteriously around a looped bandoneon flourish. The list of artists who contributed is somewhat astounding-4Hero, Alexkid, Nickodemus and Osiris, Koop, Osunlade and more, although a rumored turn by MAW’s Little Louie Vega apparently fell through. The most successful tracks are those that bring to the fore Piazolla’s underlying melancholy and hint of menace, as Fantasista does with “Resurrecci?n del Angel.” Fantasista, a.k.a. Toshio Matsuura of United Future Organization, takes two drawn-out cello notes and wrings them for all they’re worth, building tension with ominous drums before lacing the breakdown with slightly dissonant bandoneon. Nu Spirit Helsinki take a similarly dramatic approach to “Verano Porte?o,” filling it with haunted spaces and brushes that stalk over drum heads like dancers across a ballroom. Though Astor Piazolla Remixed is not an unmitigated success (John Arnold’s “Calambre” is a bit fey, and Ricochet’s “Duo de Amor” plods along dully) neither was Piazzolla’s oeuvre, for mistakes are inevitable if one dares to take chances. For listeners in search of timeless passion interpreted by some of today’s most inventive producers, Astor Piazolla Remixed is a sure bet. “
Amalgamation Of Sounds Fabric live
Take your time and do it right: The Amalgamation of Sounds takes that advice to heart on this slowly building mix disc. Setting off with a smooth mix of soundtrack styles (Nick Ingham Orchestra’s “Heart Noir”) and lazy beats (Sofalofa’s “Pump Da Ball”), TAOS eventually picks up the pace with their own rework of Richard Davis’s “Meaning” and RJD2’s “Chicken Bone Circuit” before really kicking it off with some dark and pounding cuts from Hi-Lo and Soultek. Rather than an eclectic jumble, TAOS serves up a tasty buffet of beats held together by unremarkable blends but stellar programming.
