My top 10 for 2005 - from igloomag.com

Top Ten of 2005

10. (Four Way Tie) Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Infero - Just Another Band From The Cosmic Inferno/Demons From Nipples/IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno/Anthem of the Space
Four albums from this group this year. They're hard to keep up with, but AMT are consistently great of late. The new line-up and vibe from this band blows almost every other psychedelic rock band out of the water.
9. Julian Cope - Citizen Cain'd
The 'Drude returns to us under his own name, blowing our eardrums out with some of the most primal, three-chord "fuck-it-lets-just-JAM" rock and roll.
8. (Two Way Tie) Meat Beat Manifesto - At The Centre / Off-Center
Two wonderful discs (one a full-length, the other an EP) from Jack Dangers, and both excellent. But this jazz sound seems a little like an artistic cul-de-sac. Mr. Dangers is a resourceful enough artist to have never rested on his laurels with a particular vibe/sound or to stagnate. Whatever 2006 brings from the man, it is still eagerly anticipated.
7. Ween - Shinola
Gotta love the Ween. The more Ween there is in the world, the more hope we have as a civilization that we'll make it back to the Garden.
6. Kohei Mihara - Cocolotica
I Can't stop listening to this trip-hop masterpiece.
5. Great Lakes Myth Society
XTC goes all Great-Lakes on you and coils itself around your heart, squeezing it when necessary, but otherwise keeping it warm and secure in its grip. Excellent release from these Ann Arbor, Michigan gentlemen.
4. (Three Way Tie) Khanate - Capture & Release / Ginnungagap - Remindre / Sunn O))) - Black One
Stephen O'Malley certainly was busy this year, but didn't let the pace get to him in a way that would affect the quality of this output. Aesthetically similar to the newcomer, these releases all are actually very different (especially so the Ginnungagap), but uniformly sound much better when played much louder, and thereby reveal their mysteries. Super-nice guys, too. Very intelligent.
3. Petra Hayden - Sings The Who Sell Out
This album brings tears of joy to my eyes. Hearing the passionate love for music that is in Hayden's voice was one of the most inspiring motivators of this year,
2. The Juan McLean - Less Than Human
"Give Me Every Little Thing" is hands-down the top song of the year. Holy shit what a stomper that is. Funkified to the nth degree. The rest of the album ain't that shabby either.
1. (Two Way Tie) Coil - The Ape of Naples / ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms
Rest in Peace, Jhonn Balance. You are sorely missed. These two final albums from Coil showcase his unique abilities, and the true genius of his collaborators, Peter Christopherson, Thighpaulsandra, Tom Edwards, Cliff Stapleton, Mike York, and Ossian Brown

Top 5 Reissues


5. The Orb - Orbsessions, Vol. I
Some decent closet-cleaning here, but the next volume is promised to be the original version of "Space," the album Patterson worked on with Jimi Cauty from the KLF.
4. AFX - Hangable Auto Bulb
Glad to finally be able to retire the vinyl of this. Too bad its worth noting on ebay now. :-)
3. DJ Shadow – Endtroducing / In Tune and On Time DVD
Might be a little early for a reissue, but its such a great album. The DVD is a live show that shows the magic behind the 'tables.
Essential viewing.
2. Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By
An excellent album reissued with some excellent extra tracks. More please!
1. Global Communication - 76:14
I may be showing my age here, but I remember when this came out and found it to be one of the most wonderful sonic excursions that you could have in headphones. With some time between then and now, this album not only stands up to its history, it surpasses it. The remastering job is fantastic, bringing out new- sounding facets of this ambient techno classic.

Top 10 Random Discoveries/Rediscoveries/Epiphanies/Realizations of 2005
10. Autechre, while putting out albums that are interesting, hasn't put one out that is actually good in a real long time.
9. LCD Soundsystem is not the greatest thing since sliced toast, nor is Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
8. Man, that last Boards of Canada really made me sleepy, didn't it?
7. The Orb, too, damnit. One of my favourite bands finally got boring.
6. Gang of Four - what's the big deal?
5. William Vollmann's Rising Up and Rising Down. The real history of violence.
4. I successfully ignored "My Humps" and "Hollaback Girl" all year. Still haven't heard either. This feels like an achievement.
3. Dave Sim's Cerebus comic book. Fuck this is great stuff.
2. Pub needs to tour. Immediately and forever.
1. The amount of time necessary to listen to all the good music that you come across gets smaller every year.

Obligatory Warp-Related Honorable Mention
1. Chris Cunningham – Rubber Johnny
Can someone please give this man 50 million to make Neuromancer, PLEASE?

Other Honorable Mentions
Creamy Water Quiz
Abelcain - Pantheon of Fiends
mnty - Analog Values

Looking Forward To:
Davros - The Key To Time (vinyl reissue on Low Res)
The greatest hardcore breaks record ever, reworked and reissued on lovely vinyl.

Gr3yman & Valerie Boybender - "The Message" EP

This is unpublished in its entirety.

Gr3yman and Valarie Boybender
"The Message"

Detroit's Gr3yman, (Mike Madill of 19.5 Collective fame) teamed up with the pseudonymous Valarie Boybender to produce this teaser 12" (a full length is forthcoming), with two original tracks and two remixes from Not Robo Boy and Kero.

The A-side, "The Message" is a true stomper, stadium house for the electro generation, with mad phat synths that bump and pump against the booty bass in a mash-up that leaves both the dancefloor and the bedsheets sweaty. Over the track soar Valarie's come-hither vocals, the sexiest thing to happen to music since Serge Gainsbourg.

Not Robo Boy (Himowari's Takeshi) turns in a twisting breakbeat remix that almost completely reconfigures the original track into something both different and just as satisfying. Leaving only basic vocals and some heavy breathing, the track presents Valarie in such a context as to make her the new voice of sex in music. But its about the beats, right? Takeshi takes drum and bass a couple of generations into the future, skipping 2-step, and whatever comes after that; completely unexpected twists and turns in the percussion. He's also taken the melody line and jiggered it to make it more in the avant garde tradition, coming off like Seefeel on DMT.

Kero turns in something similar to Takeshi's take on the track, but this is a little more dancefloor friendly. Almost all of the original vocals and melody are removed, leaving just the smallest example of bass and beats. Upon these fragile elements, Kero creates a new track on top, which thuds along for five minutes with some interesting sample mangling.

Saving the best for last, "Anymore" rounds out the EP, the true highlight, all swirling Liz Fraser vocals and Gary Numan keys. Taking its time to build, this track never peaks but maintains a constantly building groove, getting funkier each second.

Meat Beat Manifesto - "Off-Centre" from igloomag

Meat Beat Manifesto
Off-Centre

Off-Centre is a nice companion to At The Centre, Jack Dangers’ entry into the new-jazz series that Thirsty Ear is putting out. Off-Centre collects three new tracks, two live tracks from their recent North American tour, and a remix of At the Centre’s leadoff track, “Wild.” Said remix falls a little flat. But perhaps this is not the failure of JD, but the final turn into the cul-de-sac that At The Centre’s new-jazz sound tries to expand.

“Postcards” is a completely different beast, however. Jack pulls out the old-school fat bass key and lets The Bad Plus’ Dave King just play the hell out of the trademark MBM breakbeat. “Maintain Discipline,” the second of the new tracks, also acquits itself well, pulsing and grooving in a Zamfir-gone-Kingston headspace. Dangers’ underused talent on the bass flute is also well showcased on this track, as is the deft Rhodes work by Craig Taborn.

The two live tracks, both recorded at Chicago’s Metro in June of this year are a nice souvenir of the live show. “Shotgun! (Blast to the Brain)” seems to be pretty true-to-studio in its execution, and “Prime Audio Soup” becomes the urgent anthem it always should have been. It should be noted that with the exception of Lynn Farmer’s exceptional drumming, Mark Pistel, Ben Stokes, and JD are all using samplers, both audio and video. While lacking in their visual counterparts, the two live tracks do succeed in getting you out of your chair and onto the dance floor, should any DJ be brave enough to play them.

Meat Beat Manifesto - Live in Detroit 2005 - from igloomag

This is my first stab at a live show review.


Meat Beat Manifesto – Live at St. Andrew’s Hall, 06.25.2005

Let’s start by saying that Detroit, on that day, was topping out in the mid-90s, and St. Andrew’s Hall has no air conditioning, so it was a good ten to twenty degrees hotter inside. But the heat was no deterrent to the two hundred or so people who showed up for this fine spectacle. And spectacle it was, moving beyond mere concert, due in great measure to the visual element of the show, provided by Ben Stokes.

The stage setup is with Lynn Farmer behind the drum kit and on the left side of the stage facing the right, and a rack of laptops and synths backed by Stokes, Jack Dangers, and Mike Pistel, all facing both Farmer and the video screen. So no one is directly facing the crowd, making the two video screens the chief visual element. On tracks with vocals, a small camera on the micstand put Jack’s face up on the screens.

Speaking as a Meat Beat fan for more than fifteen years, it was quite a treat to see the original video samples that have shown up in MBM’s music, which was the bulk of the video shown, including classics like the “I am a zombie” conversation, “I am Electro”, and more. And this was all “mixed” together live using a couple of PowerMacs, a KAOS pad and something that scratched video as if on a turntable. Truly remarkable in execution.

The setlist was a wonderful mix of old and new, encompassing classics like “Radio Babylon”, “Helter Skelter”, and “Hello Teenage America”, and newer material like “Prime Audio Soup”, “Spinning Round” and “Flute Thang”.

Overall, a wonderful show, running just over two hours. Although there was no encore, the show felt complete in and of itself. And who could blame them? At times, the video projectors that were on stage would overheat and shut down. Stokes and the roadies were very quick in getting the projectors up and running again. It was a sticky heat, with very little relief from the fans in the venue. But the heat wasn’t going to stop anyone from getting down. The crowd was mostly bopping and dancing along, hands in the air, etc. Not the biggest crowd was there, but they gave their all. Jack and the band all appeared genuinely pleased with the show.

Jandek - "Raining Down Diamonds" from igloomag

The mighty Jandek. All bow before him.

Jandek
“Raining Down Diamonds”
Corwood Industries

This, the 42nd Jandek album, features all the trademarks that Jandek fans have come to expect. Moaning, tortured, howling vocals, atonal guitar (in this case, bass guitar), and the some of the most honest and personal lyrics ever written.
In a way, reviewing a Jandek record really is like dancing about architecture. Its Jandek. There never was an artist where the aesthetic of his career is more interesting or pleasurable than listening to his music. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably pick it up, puzzle over it for a while, and then file it next to the other 41 albums and wait for number 43. If you’re not a fan, you’ll probably put it on, give it 30 seconds a track, and then vow never to listen to it again. There truly has never been an artist that can polarize a crowd like Jandek.
“Take My Will, ” the standout track, has Jandek aimlessly strumming a bass, and howling for Jesus to “take my will and make it yours.” He sounds desperately drunk. The kind of drunk where its 4 in the morning, you’re past the “I love everyone” phase and you’re at home and its dark and you want to go to sleep but you need to talk to your ex from 1996 and then you just give up and cry yourself to sleep. Like there’s sadness in the soul that no person’s love will ever salve. The entire record speaks from this mental space of exhausted sadness.
Wire readers will claim this is innovative outsider music from a non-musician, but to these ears, Jandek just sounds tired. The move to a bass guitar for instrumentation is welcome, but his voice never changes from its tortured wailing, the bass tone is the same for the whole record, and in the end, it becomes more of an endurance test, a challenge to out-hip all of your friends by claiming to like only the most atonal music possible. And that’s ok, because this is the perfect album to blast at a red light in your car, with your windows down, as you look at the person next to you and scream, “I’m into this!”

Dungen - "1999 - 2001" from igloomag

Dungen
1999 – 2001

Dungen occupy an interesting and unique place in modern pop music. Racing through genres in the quest for the perfect psychedelic pop moment, 1999-2001 (an expanded version of the Norwegian band’s first album) is a forty-five minute adventure in sound.

1999’s three tracks are all multi-part suites, tipping a hat to Yes’ Topographic Oceans extravagance. But this album works and works well. A typical suite moves like this: ambient introduction, psyche/folk vocal and guitar, blissed-out fuzz guitar and drums, back to ambient, then vocals/guitar, etc. Accept this as a roadmap and not a value judgment. Each of the three tracks contains enough musical left-turns and unexpected passages of sublime pop beauty.

It must be said as well though, that there is a fair amount of ambient wankery, slowing the pace of the album. Such a place is the beginning of track two, “Midsommarbongen,” which steals a course from Pink Floyd’s “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” with its Popol Vuh-esque Moog work and general disinterest in melody. This unfortunate section goes on for long enough that one wishes the album were not indexed by suite number, but by movement.

On the whole though, Dungen’s earliest material is an intriguing and continually surprising album, a masterpiece that is finally getting a larger audience that it richly deserves.

Meat Beat Manifesto - "At The Center" from igloomag

Meat Beat Manifesto - At The Center

Jack Danagers, operating under the Meat Beat Manifesto rubric but with new members, conjures forth his jazziest album yet with "At The Center." Featuring Craig Taborn on keyboards, Dave King of The Bad Plus on drums, and Peter Gordon on flute, the album is a groovy mash-up of Jack's trademarked big-beat style electronic and cool acoustic jazz. Looking back on the discography, this album represents a huge change in styles from where MBM started with Armed Audio Warfare, but following the curve of Jack's progression from the soundscapes of Subliminal Sandwich and the jazzy feel of Actual Sounds and Voices, through the dub filter of RUOK? and RUOK in Dub, this album makes perfect sense. One does wish for Jack's return to vocals, but in its place are enough amusing samples to distract the listener from their absence.

At the Center is part of Thirsty Ear's "Blue Series," an attempt by the label to stretch the boundaries of jazz into electronic realms. And while the two genres would seem to be diametrically opposed, in Dangers' hands, they meld seemlessly into a cohesive whole. "Murita Cycles" has a lounge-y groove, with some very nimble brushed-snare work from Dave King. Peter Gordon's flute contributions are very haunting on the track, meandering over the groove, haunting it. "Want Ads One" and "Want Ads Two" are amusing enough numbers, featuring the band in full flight on part one, in ambient comedown on part two, all overlaid with a voice reading strange want ads. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and it does not bear repeated listening, but the tracks are a nice enough diversion the first couple of times through the record. "Bohemian Grove" has Jack playing an eastern melody on plucked guitar with Taborn (one suspects) supplying a creepy keyboard drone behind it, making this track a highlight.

Tracks starts to sound the same over the length of the album, having similar instrumentation and no vocals to distinguish them, but this is to be expected. But it still works, At The Center, being a concept album not of ideas but of sounds: trademarked Jack drums, flute solos, and weird electronic tweaks dropping in and flying around the stereo field. Taking lessions from the In Dub sessions, Dangers uses space with a master's touch, bringing dub and electronic music in the the jazz age. Or jazz into the electronic age. Or dub into the jazz age. Whatever. It works, and Meat Beat remains at the top of their game.

Vladislav Delay - "The Four Quarters" from igloomag

Vladislav Delay
The Four Quarters

The Four Quarters marks a return to the long-form techno that Vladislav Delay made his name on, harkening back to the icy moonscapes of “Ele” or “Entain,” and pretending like the cul-de-sac of Luomo’s tech-house didn’t exist. The album consists of four tracks (obviously), ranging from fourteen to sixteen minutes each, and covering the same sort of glitch-dub techno that Delay is known for. Warm synths underline each track while deep dub bass bounces around underneath skittering percussion. Full of space, each of the quarters draws the listener in with a short, inviting prelude before rocketing out into the outer realms of rhythm and sound. This is an album that will sound great on a loud system.

Perhaps most reminiscent of the one-track “Anima” (or its live equivalent, the also one-track “Naima”), The Four Quarters works as a whole piece, which each track segueing into the next on the cd (no idea how the tracks end on the vinyl). Each track has very little repetition, progressing in ways that are surprising and sometimes jarring, as at about 8 minutes into “Second Quarter, ” or two minutes into “Third Quarter” (you’ll see). The album as a whole is much more involving than his previous, “Demo(n)tracks,” in that it gives the listener time to sink into each track and feel its twists and turns. The previous album worked in shorter form than 4Q, and suffered for it for just that reason. While Demo(n) was had more of a just-get-it-done vibe, 4Q feels loved and labored over. There is careful work apparent in the details on this record.

Delay is an artist that needs a long span of time to get his ideas across, and where this might be a criticism for some artists, it is an endorsement here. So few artists (especially electronic musicians, at this time anyway) work in long-form that Delay’s music is a much-needed whiff of something fresh.

Is this the new beginning to the prog-space-dub-house movement? Perhaps. Is it the end of a logical progression for the sound? The case could be made. But I think Delay has something up his sleeve that will surprise us next time, much like 4Q did this time.

Nurse With Wound - "Angry Electric Finger" from igloomag

Nurse With Wound
Angry Electric Finger, Vol. 1: Tape Monkey Mooch (Jim O'Rourke)
Angry Electric Finger, Vol. 2: Paraparaparallelogrammatica (Cyclobe)
Angry Electric Finger, Vol. 3: Mute Bell Extinction Process (Irr.App.Ext.)

Steven Stapleton is one of music's true outsider geniuses, managing to operate independently for over 20 years making some very uncompromising music. Ranging from the tape manipulations of "A Sucked Orange" to the "queasy listening" of "Sylvie and Babs Home Companion" to the dark ambient pulsations of "Soliloquy For Lilith", Stapleton has pursued his muse wherever it leads him. This time around, though, he felt some outside assistance would be apropos. So in come Jim O'Rourke, Cyclobe, and Irr.App.Ext to make their mark.



Jim O'Rourke's volume is the best of the three. While sounding much like an untouched NWW record, O'Rourke brings out the menace and horror from the source material, creating two soundscapes that truly take over the environment they are played in. At low volumes, track one is a gentle pulsing lullaby that is disrupted by some metallic interference at the end. But loud, the piece opens up and allows its secrets to be seen. I swear there's a sample of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" in there somewhere. Track two is much more noisy, completely different from track one, using the full range of the stereo image, panning back and forth chaotic electronic stabs, undercut by some saxophone from Xhol Caravan. This morphs into an almost ambient section, but is stopped by something that, in true NWW fashion, can only be described as "metallic" and "bowed."



Cyclobe, aka some-time Coil members Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown, take the opportunity to make some of the most frightening soundscapes created by men. Using the most jarring and piercing electronic tones of the source material (available separately from this set, and unheard by this reviewer), Cyclobe's entry into the series is probably the hardest to listen to, but all the more rewarding because of it. Described by the label as "deeply psychedelic electro," this reviewer would have to disagree. This is music as concrete as it gets, devoid of rhythm, melody, etc., but full of true actual sound upon sound. Probably the closest in spirit to Nurse With Wound's aesthetic of "aggressive disorientation," perfectly in line with albums such as "Spiral Insana" or the louder moments on "Rock and Roll Station."



Irr.App.Ext, aka Matt Waldron, starts in much the same place as O'Rourke, using a panned ratchet sound and doom-y drones to create a mood of quiet oblieration. These sounds are allowed to build for a while before they are smeared and warped into an oubliette of ambience that includes the mothership from Close Encounters and a xylophone, I think. Very hard to tell just what is making each sound on a project like this. Which is a good thing. This may be one of the best aural versions of what it sounds like inside your head as you lose balance, but before you fall. There's a measured use of silence on this album, which is appreciated, in that the sounds are so dense, any reprieve to sort them out is welcome. Again, while similar in construction to O'Rourke's volume of the series, this edition takes things to the next level, introducing a little more chaos and flying further away from the source.

Meat Beat Manifesto - "In Dub" from igloomag

One of my favourite artists, that Meat Beat.

Meat Beat Manifesto - In Dub

Jack Dangers returns with a visit to the dub-space, a palace of infinite echo, rattling snare shots and nicely toasted vocals with the new "In Dub." Featuring the toasting stylings of DJ Collage, the disk is an excellent translation of RUOK's minimalist soundscapes for the ragga set.
Some of the tracks bear a resemblance to their RUOK originals (like "Spinning Round Dub"), but the majority of the disc sounds new, with only a stray bassline or vocal sample to jog the memory. Without a copy of RUOK available, the disc sounds almost entirely new and not like a gentle rehashing of previous material. Whereas Dangers has always recycled beats and bass before (the recycling logo being on the back cover of Satyricon, ahem), in the dub-space, they take on a new life, separate from what-has-come-before.
"Super Soul Dub" benefits from the recycling the most. A familiar sample from the previous album is recontextualized here, added to a dub bassline that shakes the bins in a most righteous manner, and a cut-up toast from the toastmaster, DJ Collage.
There is also a surround-sound version of the album, released as a dvd with visuals from Ben Stokes. Both will be worth picking up.

Jack Dangers & The Orb from igloomag

Combined a couple of related-releases in this review.

Jack Dangers - Loudness Clarifies / Electronic Music From Tapelab
Orb Vs. Meat Beat Manifesto - Battersea Shield

Jack Dangers certainly seems like he's been doing much of late. Between remixing his own work ("RUOK...in dub"), having others do it for him ("Storm the Studio R.M.X.S."), and re-scoring classic sci-fi films ("Forbidden Planet Explored"), it would be natural to assume that a little break was in order. Stuff the idea; Jack returns with two full albums (packaged together, but not of a piece) and a collaborative EP with his mates iThe Orb. So although he never really left, now that Jack's back, how's he doing?



Loudness Clarifies
Judging from the opening track's name alone ("Annihilating Rhythm"), he's doing pretty good. Carrying on in the same minimalist vein of "RUOK?" and "Variations Espectrales," this new one presents Jack in beats/breaks/bass mode, and opens with a bang. The trademark deep, bouncing bass, and precise, snare-dominated drums roll out of speakers as components of well-oiled machines are apt to do. Fans will know what they're getting here -- plenty of not-quite-meant-for-the-dancefloor tracks, a little ambient, some dub, plenty of melody. While it does, in places, sound interchangeable with tracks from other recent MBM/Dangers outings, when the quality of material is so high, this is not really a criticism, as much as it is a recognition that an artist is working at the top of his game, and needs to get as much material heard by as many people as he can. Seriously great material is to be found here, much more so than on the second cd of the set.

Electronic Music From Tapelab
This is a collection of electro-acoustic music created in the Dangers home studio, Tapelab, the pieces of which were recorded for film, radio and television over a period of 10 years. Billed as ultra-complex audio collages, in truth the album is fifty minutes of seriously amelodic ambient music, smacking of pretension of the highest order. Seriously, this album is not for the old-school MBM fans or fans of Jack's more recent minimal direction, but for beard-twirling record-store academics that try to out-hip each other by listening to noise cds found in the avant-garde section and name-drop Morton Subotnick. This only thing to compare this album with would be the second cd in the original pressings of 1996's "Subliminal Sandwich," which showcased the band's more experimental sensibilities, but kept both a beat, and your attention. Thankfully, this album appears appended to "Loudness Clarifies," and the package price is not that of a double album, so the feeling of being shorted isn't as great. One does feel, however, the pang of the loss of an hour spent listening to it that cannot be recovered, and does not enrich the spirit.



Battersea Shield
This one purports to be from two live jams recorded in 2001 and 2004, with Jack, Lynn Farmer (MBM's drummer), and LX Paterson (or however he's spelling it this week). It’s about 32 minutes long, dominated by a long piece, 1855 BC, which runs 18:55. The EP is a fair collaboration; everyone seems to contribute ideas equally throughout, with Farmer's excellent drumming, Jack's bass and synths, and Orb's general ambient "samples, spliffs, and bongos" weirdness. They're firmly in the dub tradition on this release, stretching melody out to the breaking point, leaving plenty of space inside of the beats, with everything inside an echo chamber that just goes on and on and on. Opener "Matron" and "1855 BC" are excellent, and provide the trainspotting fan the opportunity to play "spot the sample," some of which are recycled from previous Meat Beat tracks. "Matron" appears to be a live version of "Horn of Jerico" from "RUOK?." The downside is "Insane," a track from 2004 that plods and stomps in the right places, but feels tired and tacked on. Imagine a 4x4 beat with a shuffle, and the same three vocal samples being repeated ad nauseum, and you're close to both describing this song, and forgettable dance floor fodder. Dangers doesn't appear in the writing credits for the track, actually, making this yet track another unfortunate entry in the Orb's recent discography. Still, worth your money for the first two tracks.

Kawabata Makoto - "O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras?" from igloomag

Kawabata Makoto – O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras?

Acid Mothers Temple’s guitarist extraordinaire Kawabata Makoto returns to his droning muse for this release, a meditative piece of guitar pyschedelia. Comprising two long pieces, O Si Amos begins with the first recording of Makoto playing an acousic guitar. Running the signal through 3 reverb units and a delay, the piece takes far too long (12 minutes of sub-Derek Bailey acoustic strumming nonsense) to get going, but when it does, the shimmering tones that are produced are like no others drawn from a simple acoustic.
Weaving shimmering phrases and drones, Makoto brings to mind the soundscapes of Robert Fripp’s more recent solo releases, especially Fripp’s collaboration with Jeffrey Fayman, A Temple in the Clouds. And this is extremely frustrating, this waiting for the greatness, or more accurately, wading through the chaff for the substance, even when conceding the point that AMT have never been particularly concerned with quality control. But here, like in most other Makoto-related recordings, it truly is worth working though the boring, repetitve, going-nowhere part of this record to reach some transcendent and beautiful drone.
Halfway into the piece the multiple reverb units and the original sound from the acoustic have combined into a curtain of sound, slowly rippling and moving, miles away from what one would have expected an acoustic guitar could sound like. This is a meditative piece for the ages. The second track, which occupies the bulk of the album, continues in a similar vein, but features Makoto on electric guitar, using the same delay/reverb setup.
The press material for the disc relates an enigmatic anecdote about a trip (not that kind of trip, at least I don’t think so) that Makoto took in Sardinia, where he experienced a “spiritual climax,” an epiphany. The revelations of this epiphany are not revealed, but the music, if one is to assume was created to approximate the epiphanic experience, sheds all needed light. Makoto appears to have found the harmonic nexus, a peaceful palace of infinite delay, infinite reverb, and ultimate melody. Headphones and some chemical preparation are all one needs to join him there.

I-Gor - "Barwy Kolorow" from igloomag

I:GOR - Barwy Kolorow
M-Tronic

I:GOR hails from Poland, where he has been crafting his breakbeats since 1994, documenting his progress on a multitude of labels, notably Detroit's Low Res, but also including Suburban Trash and Hangars Liquides. "Barwy Kolorow" makes its appearance on the France-based M-Tronic, and it should be a long and rewarding relationship, based on this release.

I:GOR varies his style on this album, never settling into anything long enough to have it labeled a sound. There's the power electronics of "Kiedys Zrozmiesz", the trip-hop of "Niekochani", the industrial hip hop of "Cannibalism", and so on. Sounds like a mess, but it isn't, not by a long shot. The album coheres in a manner that is slightly surprising, given the genre-hopping it does. But each track does lead into the next - not mixed together, but as if someone was creating a mix-tape for that someone special in their life. There's a care in the track sequencing which some electronic artists seem to ignore, but I:GOR thrives on.

The Jenkinson fanatics get something to crow about on "Hullaballoo," which employs what sounds like live bass and drums, and has a nice jazzy squarepusher vibe. And like the best Squarepusher or Venetian Snares, this album sounds great L-O-U-D. Like most breakbeat, the subtleties in the beat are lost at a low volume, and this is no exception. Even headphones don't really bring out the hidden treasures of this album which become apparent at a mind-shearing volume.

Scorn - "List of Takers" from igloomag

Scorn – List of Takers (Vivo)

Mick Harris is back at it again. I was under the impression that the Scorn moniker had been retired at least twice by now, but I’m damn glad to have some new material in my hands and on my decks. Scorn always had the dub-gone-evil thing in spades compared to his contemporaries, and now, when it appears that there are no contemporaries, List of Takers comes out on a tiny Polish label in a limited edition and it’s the best thing Scorn’s done. So if you want your fix of demon-dub, Vivo is the place to run to.

Recorded live (one take, apparently) for Breaks FM, List of Takers is one seventy-minute track that pushes the Scorn legacy into a new phase. Using samples of previous material (I know there’s a vocal sample from Logghi Barroggi in there somewhere) and new sounds, Harris pushes himself as far out as he has under the Scorn rubric. Think Lull with beats, and you’re closer to the concept of List of Takers. Concept, not sound, because the sound is still rooted in the downtempo dark-hop (or whatever its called this week) from years past. List is not as bass-heavy as previous releases like Greetings From Birmingham or Gyral, but presents more of a dirty bass-synth that operates paradoxically in more of the mid-range of sound.

The bottom line is that this is Scorn. If you’ve heard Scorn before, you have a pretty good idea what this is going to sound like. The charge could be leveled by the uninitiated that all Scorn albums sound alike, and that is not wholly inaccurate. This will not convert the unconvinced. But for those with ears tuned in, there’s variation and progression within the discography. List of Takers is a new step in a new direction, and for that I am thankful.

Various Artists - "Audiobulb Records Exhibition #2" - unpublished, and with reason

Probably my poorest written review. Never published.

VA - Audiobulb Records Exhibition #2

Thank God for free mp3 downloads, otherwise there'd be some upset people who forked over their hard earned greenbacks for this derivative crap. A full cd's worth of music that goes nowhere, with little or no melodic content or progression, entire hard disks full of skittering 3rd rate drum programming, atonal synth pads and half-ass glitch/dsp. This is a compilation that adds nothing to an overcrowded genre, more of the same autechre-esque shit, but in the most generic way. There is no soul in this music, just sound. And annoying sounds at that, overused patches, blah blah blah. Avoid, unless you want yet another compilation of artists who are making background noise of the most disposable order. There's just too much of this shit out there.

Lowfish - "1000 Corrections Per Second" from igloomag

Lowfish - 1000 Corrections Per Second (suction records)

This is the 3rd full length from Gregory DeRocher, the co-founder of Suction Records, who proclaims, in the liner notes, that "the notion of 1000 corrections per second is a concept inspired both by the possibility of extreme quantization, and the amount of times one's mind changes during the creative process." Hmm. Also worth noting from the liner notes are the influences, which are spelled out in alphabetical order for the punters: Autechre (early), Vince Clark, Depeche Mode, etc. In a most-likely-anticipated irony, Lowfish is truly wearing their influences on their sleeve.

There's nothing too new here, but perhaps that is not the point. Listening to the record with nostalgia for the early 80s in mind, the album opens up and becomes a cut-out bin of lost rare grooves, channelling Gary Numan, Neu!, and the above-mentioned artists. Not without its highlights, the album comes off as atmospheric low-fi electro, probably too sedate for the dancefloor, more suited to headphones and G-Force visualizations. "Deadlines and Error," "Fric Frac," and "Air of Supremacy" are the most notable tracks, all sporting catchy melodies and uptempo bpms. The rest, though not bad in any way, seem a little tired, like old jeans - comfortable, but worn out and ready to be replaced by something fresher, more "fashionable," to stretch the metaphor.

There's nothing wrong with being retro, nothing at all, but when listening to an album makes you want to pull out another band's album (like Broadcast make this reviewer grab for some Stereolab, Jellyfish make me reach for Queen), the time that will be spent with the album will be necessarily short-lived. If early 80s synth-pop is your thing, the time has come to live it up retro-style. If you're looking for something new or fresh, there's probably better places to look.

Monolake - "Momentum" from igloomag

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in December 2003.



Monolake - Momentum

Momentum takes us into Rupert Henke's own version of the Beat, restless, ever-shifting, and eternal. Utilizing software of his own creation, Ableton Live 2, Henke has produced a beat-scape of monumental proportions. This is the sound of a laptop artist fully embracing his medium, exploring every aspect of his software. Building on previous wonderments like "Hong Kong" and "Gobi the Desert," Momentum delivers on previous implied promises. This is the sound of an artist just now coming into his own.
Momentum starts off very nicely with the ping-ponging rhythm of "cern," sounding like a perturbed Steve Roach, with a tasty and menacing synth pad that really pushes the piece into an inner realm. "Linear" evokes the atmosphere of earlier Richie Hawtin, but fleshed out in a way that Plastikman would not approach. "atomium" (no capitals in the track titles, folks) reaches out into the dub space, with train-track like skittering percussion sounds. The album progresses much like what has come before, deep berlin-dub atmospheres and menacing synth tones, tweaked and processed into squelching, skittering (but not glitchy) soundscapes.
Each track evokes a current name in the electronic scene, but Monolake transcends the comparisons, making each sound, each track, each beat his own. And this is the magic of Monolake, of "Momentum," and it is to be treasured. This is an album designed for both the dancefloor and for headphones. Or better yet, the dancefloor with headphones, even if that dancefloor is your bedroom.

The Mitgang Audio - "The View From Your New Home" from igloomag

The Mitgang Audio - The View From Your New Home

You hear some of the best records right at the end of the year. It always seems like just after you've refined your top-10 list, something absolutely amazing comes along and causes you to rethink the entire list, and the entire year. The Mitgang Audio have done this. "The View From Your New Home" is a revelation, a glowing beacon of pure idm-pop in an ocean of what has become tepid two-step garage and glitch beats.
This is a simple record in the best way. Simple beats, simple melodies, simple programming, simple vocodered vocals. From the opener "Minor Causes" on, the pure pop mastery of the songwriting just sinks into your head, bouncing around and around, infinitely catchy. "Tokyo-Scope" recalls Kraftwerk or Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode, which is unavoidable for this type of music, but the association works positively. It bleeps and burbles in the nicest way.
The record, like the best Boards of Canada, evokes an earlier time in life, a feeling of innocence and playfulness. But not wistfulness, or melancholy, like BOC. The Mitgang Audio are pure fun, all the way through. Even during "The Escape," a detour into chamber music, retains a joviality about itself.
Prepare to rewrite your top ten.

Novel 23 - "Architectural Effects" from igloomag.com

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in December 2003.


Novel 23 - Architectural Effects

Novel 23 is Roman Belousov, and he beams his version of electronic music into the ether straight from Moscow. Novel 23 has crafted a soundtrack where one can finally dance about architecture. This album, Architectural Effects, is a wonderment of melody, an embarrassment of riches in today's idm scene. An album like this will be criminally under-exposed, and that is quite a shame. Antecedents to Novel 23's sound would include the normal laundry list, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, the inevitable Kraftwerk, etc. But Novel 23 does not have the retro-sound of the time of those artists, he sounds precisely out of time, because these songs have nothing to date them with. Classic melodies and tasty beats will always stand the test of time.
"Lucarne," falling in the middle of the album, is a short piece, with a sad trumpet-synth sounding against a shimmering backdrop of echoing keyboards, like a velvet curtain blowing in the wind. The piece would seem too short, at under ninety seconds, until one realizes that less really is more, and that repeating the track only makes it more and more emotional.
Things shift gears a little with "Porticus of Grotta" (there is a video for this song on the cd, unseen by this reviewer). Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous keyboards amid clattering beats abound. There are no highlights on the album, for each track is an exercise in melodic and emotional development. In execution, Novel 23 hits the high water mark for contemporary electronic music.

Signal Generator - Square Wave EP from igloomag.com

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in December 2004.


Signal Generator - Square Wave EP

Remember back in the early nineties, when electronic music was just starting to really get large, and new, mind-blowing stuff was coming out what seemed like every week? Stepping out of a record store with the new Aphex, new Leftfield, Black Dog, Orbital, and Underworld records, all at once? Remember how it felt when you listened to them in succession, that feeling that this kind of music was going to take everything over, that you’d never have to listen to boring dreck ever again? You were going to conquer the world, and you had the perfect soundtrack, right?

Well it may not have turned out that way, not yet, but Signal Generator remember what it was like at the time, and have released a perfect 4-track EP that encapsulates the sound and the attitude of that time. As much as electronic music as a genre is one that looks forward into the new, when a release comes along that looks back, it really is a breath of fresh air. It’s a gentle reminder that not everything has to change the world, that some things in this world are fine like they are, and one of those things is early-nineties techno.

“Square Wave” is a gentle journey, twenty-two minutes of mostly blissful, non-threatening techno. It bleeps and blurts in the right places, the beats jump and jiggle, and the bass rumbles appropriately. And while this may sound like a pan, it is not – very few artists are making retro-techno like this anymore, and it’s a sound that is sorely missing from the scene today. A full-length from these gentlemen would be most appreciated.

Various Artists - "MIAD"

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in March 2004.


Various Artists - MIAD

Miami label Somia presents itself to the world with this inaugural release, a compilation of artists who will be appearing on subsequent releases from the label, and a couple of ringers brought in for extra umph. The aesthetic of the label, that which can be gleaned from the content of this album, is straight-up idm/drill 'n' bass, and that's fine, certainly nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing.

Some nice contributions from Xanopticon, who turns in a punishing breakbeat piece, Otto Von Schirach, who's "Ashtray of MIA" does its own little thing, and the near-ambient of Phoenecia's "Can Recall (Subjex Mix)." There are also some notable tracks from people associated with the label, like Captain Marmalade, Clapan, Osiris, and a host of otherwise-unknown artists. Of them all, though, the one to watch will be Utrecht, who's "Vic Haze" is the highlight of the compilation, with its isolationist take on ambient trip-hop.

Overall, an enjoyable release from Somia, and here's to hoping for success to this new little label in Florida. There's 10 more releases planned for 2004, the website claims, most from artists on this compilation. I'm interested.

N.LN - "Astronomy For Children"

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in January 2004.


n.ln - astronomy for children

From the shady side of a San Francisco street, n.ln brings in both a ray of light and a cool breeze with its new album, "Astronomy For Children." This is the solo project from Nyles Lannon, of Frisco shoegazers Film School, and its an astounding collection of chilled beats and relaxed atmospherics.
This is best evidenced in "4 Little Fires," a snarky little beast of a track with a loping beat and a what sounds like a processed backwards guitar track that really hovers over everything else in the mix, guiding and protecting it. It comes off like what Global Communication should be doing now, if they were still active.
"Spoke Words" continues the wonderful ambience, all cathedral chords and echoing reverb, like a vintage Fax release. A shuffling snare beat comes in and provides a needed momentum, and then some dsp/glitch sounds arrive to bring it all home. Very nice.
Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this release is that it does not sound like the standard crop of idm artists working today. This is a collection of melodic electronic music whose influences are worn on its sleeve. Overall, an excellent release.

Plan 29 - "What Is A Threat" from igloomag.com

This post appeared on igloomag.com in December 2003.


Plan 29 - What Is A Threat?

Plan 29 presents itself as, according to the website, "the future of music in a world that has no future." Lofty ambition. Plan 29 instead comes across as an update of mid-80s Skinny Puppy, all slinky and menacing synths, hushed vocal samples and a general air of industrial malaise. This is a good thing.
There is a hushed atmosphere in action throughout the disk, hints and shadows of the solitary machinist, alone in his workshop, creating a metallic music built from what surrounds him. There are hints of Einsturzende Neubauten in the percussion, a:grumh in the melodies. “Anschlag” brings to mind the stylings of DAF. But “Bomber Harris” is the highlight of the EP, an ominous guitar-based instrumental that closes things out in a suitable manner.
Ultimately, Plan 29 presents very little in the way of innovation, but does provide a sensation not unlike coming home, if your home was filled with the sounds of classic industrial music.

Davros - "The Key To Time" from igloomag.com

This post appeared on Igloomag.com in September 2003.



DAVROS – The Key To Time


Concept albums have almost always had a bad rap. Accused of pretentiousness, overwrought instrumentals, over-ponderous lyrics, and topographic oceans, the genre has almost died a nearly silent death. I say almost because DAVROS has brought the concept album back, and made it relevant.

The Key To Time is a unique construction, in that it melds DAVROS’ trademark hardcore breakbeats and monster bass with the electronic sounds and incidental music that accompanied the Doctor Who series of the same name. What happened seems to be something like this: there were six BBC mini-series that made up the uber-series “The Key To Time.” DAVROS has taken the incidental music from each mini-series and used samples from each episode to provide the melodic element of the music, while providing his own beats and bass. He was limited in the music he could use by what is in each episode. There is no melodic element that was not sampled from the show.

It may sound a little academic, but it is true alchemy, pure and simple. The opening track, “White Guardian Excerpt,” sets the stage. It is primarily dialogue sampled from the show, a conversation between the Doctor and the White Guardian, who has tasked Doctor Who with finding the six segments of the Key To Time, and the consequences should he fail. Great setup for what is to come. Subsequent tracks, like “The Ribos Operation” and “Pirate Planet” all masterfully blend selected dialogue samples with the music and beats to produce something magical, a hardcore breakbeat concept record that actually works.
“The Stones of Blood” is a highlight of the disc, featuring a killer bass tone, a bpm that seems well over 180 and a coherence in its melodic element and dialogue samples that furthers the story, and maintains a musical quality that demands repeat listening. And that is its greatest triumph, that it is interesting, that it demands your attention.

Everything leads up to “Armageddon Factor,” in which the Doctor and his companion Romana gather all of the segments of the Key To Time and are confronted by the Black Guardian, who wants to use the Key for his own nefarious purposes. And it begs the question, with everything that has gone on before it, as intense as this record gets in places, where is there to go? When you’re over 180 bpm and the bass can move your bowels to vacate, where can you go? “Armageddon Factor” answers the question once and for all. It ends here. Nothing is more intense and satisfying. It is aural adrenaline.

Detroit’s Low Res records is responsible for releasing this, but it is the artist who has requested that The Key To Time be a criminally limited edition of 100. That’s right, one hundred copies. Act now.

Acid Mothers Temple review from beyondmainstream.com

This is one from January 2003, when I was just getting started doing online reviews. Its a tad hyperbolic, I admit. But you have to start somewhere.

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out

From the burning ruins of a post-“Destroy All Monsters” Tokyo, Acid Mothers Temple, led by the messiah-inspired Kawabata Makoto, fly out of the murky depths of the Sea of Japan and into the stratosphere. A collective or artists, musicians, and magicians, Acid Mothers Temple are certainly one of the best, and certainly one of the most prolific bands in the new Japanese noise-freak-out scene. With a revolving door of musicians and artisans, sometimes numbering over 30 people, Acid Mothers Temple absolutely push the boundaries of noise, rock, psychedelia, and collective improvisation.

Last year alone saw fifteen releases, re-releases, live albums, and EPs. And that’s just the group working together. Kawabata Makoto (guitarist and guru) himself is also involved in many side projects (notably a fine record recorded with Richard Young) with as many solo and collaborative releases as Acid Mothers. And therein is the problem for the neophyte – just where to start? Which to pick first?

In C is AMT’s energizing take on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic, and in their hands, it becomes a shamanistic hymn, a towering drone of massed guitars, bass, and percussion, all motors firing at the same time. It’s almost too much. Almost. AMT invite you to submit yourself in the drone, the holiest of sound-worlds, finely crafted, trance-inducing, magical. There’s also the band’s own take on Riley’s concept, “In E,” and a nice Makoto solo guitar track, “In D.”
Electric Heavyland is AMT at their most unforgiving. Aping the cover concept from King Crimson’s infamous live screed, Earthbound, and that record’s brutal progressive rock, AMT let all of their hair down and just fucking jam three tracks right into the outer reaches. Heavyland also features the wonderful vocalist Cotton Casino (credited with vocals, synthesizer, beer, and cigarette), who comes off like Bjork fronting the Fall, back when Mark E. Smith had his shit together. The record was correctly billed as AMT’s heaviest record yet.

Absolutely Freak Out (Zap Your Mind!!) carries through on the threatening promise of the title, with its eight varied tracks spread over two discs. More like melt your mind, what with the sitar/drone of “Supernal Infinite Space” working its way into the martial beats, carpet-bombing guitar, gnome-esque chanting and UFO-synthesizers of “Grapefruit March.” This record is the sound of synapses frying, just brain-sizzling, neuron-popping capital-A Acid rock.

Other recent titles worth taking a listen to are the three-cd AMT and friends compilation Do Whatever You Want, Don’t Do Whatever You Don’t Want, which features (finally!) a sixty minute studio recording of the live AMT favourite, “Pink Baby Lemonade.” There’s also some nice Cotton Casino tracks and Kawabata solo guitar pieces to recommend it. Live in Tokyo is a barn burning set from 2001, with, as its centerpiece, a scorching forty-minute version of the Occitanian-flavored “La Novia.”
Most recently, Acid Mothers Temple have started a series of 20-minute cd singles, one per month, through March of this year, under the title Magical Powers From Mars. And although AMT have announced that they will not be playing live in 2003, they have assured the world that there will be many new releases to come.