Rewound V

Rewound V

(07.13.07) This review column by Jericho Maxim focuses on the emergence of new releases from around the globe (current, past or present) in almost any electronic genre. Rewound Volume 5 features reviews from Experimedia, Boltfish, Mute Rebellion, Lopside, DesTone, Tomlab and Audio Dregs.

Jeremy Bible :: I Am Very Uncomfortable Most of the Time (Experimedia, CD/MP3)
Is there a record that inspired more laptop electronica than Incunabula? Sometimes it doesn't seem that there is. Fourteen years on from its initial release, its influence continues to spread. Autechre's classic first album impresses with its longevity. With Myspace and other sites littered with Ae clones, only the most dedicated fan can separate the wheat from the chaff and find that rare musician that builds on Incunabula instead of mimeographs it. Jeremy Bible is one of those rare musicians. At first glance, I Am Very Uncomfortable... seems to be an album that would fall into the chaff pile -- song titles like "grestwrd," "fihsis7." "scho11" are early warning signs. But there is more than meets the eye. Few albums have artwork that is more important than the music (Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, anyone?), obviously. The ears make the judgement. If it doesn't sound good, it's not going to be played much. What a relief that opener "Oscarkestra" cannonballs into your head, setting the tone for the next hour as truly epic. IAVUMOTT is continuously mixed, moving from one mood on to another, gentle, forboding, druggy, but again with a firm grasp of how cinematic music can be. Not cinematic in terms of the cliched "soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist," but cinematic in terms of 70 millimeter, wide open vistas where every detail is clear. Apparently compiled over three years, these tracks sound labored over, but not in a stifling way, they sound like they needed that amount of time to come out right. Hearkening back to the glory days of IDM (the Artificial Intelligence comps, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Bytes), Jeremy Bible's work whets the appetite for more of a classic yet innovative sound. This is found all over the album, but most on the courageous closer, "gravel." For sixteen mind-blowing minutes, Bible warps both beats and melody, seeming to slow them down and drown them in bleeping synths only to let them break free and slowly go insane. This happens over and over and over through the course of this excellent album. And Mr. Bible, while you may very well be uncomfortable, your music does not engender that feeling. I love it.

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Mise En Scene :: Neo~Ylo (Boltfish, CDr-mini)

This limited little (3") gem lasts only eighteen or so minutes, but those minutes are packed to the rafters with little sonic details that demand repeated listening. Israel's Shay Nassi is a relative newcomer, having done some remix work for label-mate Preston, and sharing an aluminum platter with dooQ. Nassi plants his flag firmly in the rich soil of IDM, staking a claim on the more melodic side of the genre, branching into ambient realms (bookends "fog:water" and "water") and hitting the dance floor ("d:great") as well. Nassi also appears to have worshipped at the shrine of (dare we say) Autechre, but his work bears the imprimatur of TriRepetae, i.e., complex beat structures, minor-key synth work, etc. Neo~Ylo doesn't transcend its influences, nor does it merely ape them. Should Nassi get a full-length under his belt, or a couple more of these tasty appetizers, he may be able to shake the Booth/Brown shackles (for that is what they really are) and fly. Checking the Boltfish website, this appears to be sold out, which is a shame. Have more faith in the size of your audience, dear Boltfish, and repress this. In time, this may be recognized as the beginning of something wonderful.

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Retic :: Saturn Day Trajectory (Mute Rebellion)

Some albums just feel warm, comforting, like a winter afternoon under a familiar blanket with loved ones. The early Boards of Canada records achieve this feeling (seemingly) effortlessly. Retic aims at the same mark, and hits more than he misses on this tasty platter. Saturn's focus is on the details, the tricky interleaving of keen beats and sly sine-wave bass with crackerjack melodies. Overall though this record feels like home. Not made-in-bedroom home, but that complex mix of stimuli that combine to evoke the simple gestalt of home, however one defines it. At times Retic turns to a pastoral, near-ambient vibe with "The Successful Begin Sleepwalking," following it up by mashing that vibe with industrial percussion on "Trunk Junk." Retic is quite skillful at mixing the two, adept enough to bring in elements of classic IDM on "Lose My Gain" and soundscapes as well. The mashup, finally playing itself out in the culture at large, finds here new life simply by returning to its roots -- mixing disparate moods, not disparate artists. At times approaching alchemy, Saturn Day Trajectory continues to surprise and evolve over repeated plays, especially on headphones.

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Lopside :: When You're Finally Through Being Responsible (Self Released, CD)
I wish there was more like this -- shoegazing post-electronica -- there must be a better name, or a formalized genre title -- something to fulfill the broken promises of m83. I've not come across much of anything lately that sounds remotely like the epic delights of this record. Mixing a post-rock sensibility with digital composing technique, Lopside isn't afraid to let his music stretch out and explore. Indeed, of the six tracks here, two are longer than 15 minutes, others running from seven and a half to just under ten. Each one of them contains several melodic ideas, one evolving from what had some before. Each track runs together, making this, in theory if not in index, one long song, a masterful manipulation of mood and tempos over extreme duration. Lopside is using guitars on this record, albeit heavily effected in places, evoking the organic along with the synthetic - yin and yang if you will, harmoniously joined in a single purpose. "Being," the uptempo highlight uses a distorted guitar loop as a maypole, around which dance beats, wordless vocals, throbbing synths, and lysergic six-strings. When takes a lot of chances, and makes the grade through sheer tenacity and ingenuity. Someone please sign this guy. Stuck in the ghetto of Myspace's musician pages, Lopside could easily get passed over, which would be a crime. But with proper distribution and promotion, Lopside could inure itself into some discerning ears, and maybe make enough money to keep making music like this.

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Bogenschutzer :: Simple City (DesTone, CD)

Reaching into the grab bag of CD's that Pietro (Managing Editor) has arranged for me, my hands bring out a delightful looking disc, its cover appearing to be the Lego city my six-year-old self never quite got around to creating. Against a sky of gray with white clouds (that's a winter sky, I'll say), the colourful spires of childhood ambition reach as high as they can, looking as much like a city as the works of Sean Kenny can. Opening the cover to see the full piece, the cityscape tapers off into green hills and a pale blue river, evoking both the urban and the pastoral. Placing the CD gently into the tray (for we must treat any reminder of our innocent childhoods as sacred), Simple City starts up and charms the pants off me (not literally) from note one. Over twelve tracks, Melbourne's Matt Archer, using acoustic and electronic elements, arranges simple (but not simplistic) songs, each one a joy of melody and percussion. You can sway to it sitting in a chair. You can write code to it. You could maybe dance to it, if your dance style is that weird shake that Edie Brickell did in the 90s. And maybe, if you sit still and let it flow over you, you can hear what music sounded like when you were very young. Wonderful.

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Khan :: Who Never Rests (Tomlab, CD)

So let's accept the proposition for the next minute or so that art is artifice, in every sense of the word. In the context of Who Never Rests, let's take artifice to mean "chicanery" and "fraud." This is not to impugn the character of Khan, or of the man behind the moniker, Can Oral. But this album sounds faked. Insincere. Mining territory well-explored by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and The Electric Hellfire Club, Khan wallows in a muck of electro-industo-disco-blues, and never rises above it. Never quite convinces. The bass is appropriately throbbing, great for the dancefloor. The synths squiggle and bleep in the right places. Oral's vocals imply an evening of frenzied sex, drugs, and hedonism, with breathy come-ons that sound like Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy. But this collection just does not work. When it is trying to sound fun, it comes off as stilted, robotic when it should be flowing. "Take It Out On Me" should be a stomping good time, with what sounds like a Rhodes accenting a slamming beat and groovy bass, sounding like the track that everyone just knows Prince has stashed away somewhere and will never release. It should be a great track, but it just does not convince. It never sounds like Oral's heart is in what he's doing here. Under our proposition above, none of this should matter, because we've accepted that art is about the lie, about the image, not the substance. Now discard that proposition, and consider that art should reflect the truth of the artist.

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Copy :: Hair Guitar (Audio Dregs, CD)

Not too much to say about Copy, as it kind of speaks for itself. Throw a dart at the tracklisting (take the disc out first), play that track. If you like it, you'll like the rest of Hair Guitar. For as bouncy and happy and fun as this album is, each of its 10 tracks are really just a variation on a theme. This is low-fi electro of the most danceable sort, apparently with key-tar supplying the main melodies, making this Hair Guitar more human sounding than most electro artists want to get. Unlike Adult. or Soviet, Copy keeps things light and airy, dancy but not dirty, sexy but not slutty. If this sounds like if might be your bag, then please dive right in. If you're not sure, dip that toe into the pool, the temperature might be just right.