NoisePoetNobody
“C.I.M.”
Label: self-released
Official Website
(3.5/5)
The title stands for Concussion, Inflammation, Mortality (the names of the tracks), which is a little bit odd considering the music, but oh well. The six tracks range from delicate percussive techno and glitch (somewhere in the neighborhood of autechre) to improvised experimental noise performed on his stringboard (a homemade instrument). Read More
Merzbow“amlux”
Label: Important
Official Website (4/5)
This is some good noise. I haven’t heard a lot of Merzbow (and there’s a lot out there), but I definitely enjoy this one. It’s got 4 tracks of looped, layered, rhythmic noise. The tracks are thick with various textures of distortion and have a lot of sounds buried in the mix. Read More
Various Artists
“Loop: The cut and paste groove collection”
Label: Popmafia (4/5)
This is a kick-ass collection of trip-hop from a wide variety of groups. I don’t even remember where I got this – probably in the clearance bin of some used record store – but I will be eternally grateful I did. It ranges from beat-focused samplefests (e.g. Coldcut, Meat Beat Manifesto, Lecture on Nothing) to gorgeous, dreamy female vocals (Halou, Bugs, Honeypot, etc.). Read More
Vidna Obmana & Asmus Tietchens“Motives for Recycling”
Label: Solielmoon
Official Website (2.5/5)
Very (i.e. excessively) mellow ambient environments. This is a 2-disc set of tracks made by Vidna Obmana recycling (e.g. cutting up, processing, and mixing the finished works) of earlier Asmus Tietchens releases. Disc one is called Linear Writings and includes 4 long tracks recycled from Tietchens’ Linea 1+3. Disc two is called Nachtstucke Revisited and its ten tracks recycle Tietchens’ Nachtstucke. Read More
Ptyl“Loki”
Label: (self released)
Official Website (4.5/5)
Based in Israel and signed to the German Danse Macabre label, Ptyl chose to conduct an experiment by self-releasing his latest album in an interactive form he calls B.A.D.A.S.S., or Blog Accessed Downloadable Album Semi Series. There is nothing H.A.L.F.A.S.S.ed about this approach, as Ptyl ruminates on each track in videos averaging 5 minutes. While Ptyl often wanders off in manic thought, these videos do help get an overall sense of where he’s coming from with Loki. It’s a daringly original approach. Read More
Kloq“Move Forward”
Label: Out of Line
Official Website (4.5/5)
Finally comes one album that has been on almost non-stop rotation in our house for the past few weeks. Kloq’s “Move Forward.” Kloq is a recent collaboration of Oz Morsley (from Empirion fame) and Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb on vocals.
While achieving pretty significant success with their track “Narcotic Influence” as well as some high profile remixes, I’ve always felt that Empirion were rather underappreciated, at least relative to the quality of their music. I often use the term electronica as general descriptor for a broad range of electronic music styles, but in its proper noun form, the term can be used to describe a specific style of 90′s electronic music that was too intelligent to be real dance music but still up-tempo and gripping. Empirion was probably the best example of this style, but there was a certain degree of darkness to their music that separated them from other purveyors of the style, i.e. Coldcut. Read More
Memmaker“How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising”
Label: Hive Records
Official Website (4/5)
On the other hand, Memmaker’s album “How to Enlist in a Robot Uprising” is about as far away from minimalism as one could go. Memmaker is a dance-oriented project from the members of the rhythmic noise outfit Iszoloscope. “How to Enlist…” shares more genetic similarity to mid-to-late 1990′s hard trance (a la Jon the Dentist, Choci, or Oliver Klitzing) than it does any Industrial/EBM/Elektro outfit. However, the drum work is crunchy enough and the melodies dark enough to land it on a genre map under the wide Industrial/dark electronic umbrella. But make no mistake; this album is club-driving dance music through and through. Read More
Antigen Shift“The Way of the North”
Label: Ad Noiseam
Official Website (5/5)
There is a particular genius that exists in the mastery of subtlety. While valid art can most certainly exist outside the realm of subtlety, there is something particularly appealing about art that accomplishes the same effect with a minimal approach, where only those components that are vital to the composition are included and each component is finely balanced. One needs only to look at a basic Eames institutional furniture piece or the modern Apple product line (which are based on 1970′s Braun product industrial design) to see examples of such quality in subtlety. Read More
yelworC“Brainstorming”
Official Website (4/5)
After putting out 8 tapes between 1988 to 1991, yelworC got signed with the independent German label Celtic Circle. Unfortunately, their career, as promising as it was, has been rather short-lived. After only 3 official releases, yelworC split into 2 entities. Peter Devin remained with the yelworC name while Dominik Van Reich formed amGod. Nonetheless, the duo’s music had time enough to make a serious impact in the rivethead community. By inspiring musicians like Rudy Ratzinger, Rasco Agroyam, Oscar Storm, etc, yelworC shaped the new wave of dark electro. Brainstorming was their first and last full-length album. Read More
Various Artists“At the Threshold Moment:A Tribute to Coil”
Label: Else Product
Official Website (2.5/5)
Like many (most) anthologies, this is definitely a mixed bag. The artists on this disc are very much on the fringe, and these pieces are dedicated to one of the more bizarre and varied groups out there. The result is 18 tracks that stretch the envelope of music. They range from very minimal noise/drone compositions to awkward live screaming noise to unusual sound collage with strange vocal samples and effects. Others are variously mashed, distorted, or recycled coil songs themselves…
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