Rewound VIII

There's going to be one more of these columns and then I'm going on hiatus. Enjoy.

REWOUND :: Volume 8 By Jericho Maxim

(12.27.07) 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 8 features reviews for Misha, Serengeti & Polyphonic, Retconned, Blue States, Fateless Flows Vol.3, Metamatics/Norken, Supersilent, Uusitalo, and Telephone Jim Jesus.


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# Misha :: Teardrop Sweetheart (Tomlab, CD)

Chicago film critic Roger Ebert has said, although I don't have the reference handy, that he rates films based on whether or not they achieve what he perceives their aim to be. If a film aims to be an over-the-top, blow-stuff-up, kill-bad-guys thriller and there is unnecessary, wanton destruction until the villain gets his comeuppance, Ebert seems to rate it higher than a cheesy action film that has pretenses to the art-house. He also, famously, rated films on his television show with a thumbs-up or -down. I'm going to use the same system for Misha, the New York-based duo of Ashley Yao and John Chao, whose album, Teardrop Sweetheart, feels overlong even at a relatively brief 39 minutes, perhaps due to its complete lack of both a memorable hook and sense of conviction in both composition and vocal delivery. Granted, Misha's songs are brittle, fragile constructs, updating the lounge sounds of The High Llamas covering a St. Etienne ballad. And while that combination sounds promising, Sarah Cracknell and Sean O'Hagen never dropped stillborn lyrics like on "Anaconda:" "Anaconda, sittin' in her Honda, feeding in the parking lot. I had a heart, but she flayed me and took me apart." Um, second grade called, it would like its poetry back. Musically, Teardrop.. is very same-y from track to track: Casio keyboards, gentle guitar, electronic beats, and damn near the same bpm every time. It seems like Misha are trying to take the classic Burt Bacharach/Hal David pop-songwriting school and tug it into 2007, but where Burt and Hal could make lemonade out of salt, Misha make an empty margarita glass, and the bar is closing. Did Misha achieve their aim? Not in anything resembling a compelling way. For a pop album created in the bedroom, Teardrop.. sounds under-produced and under-performed. And in the cruelest irony, the final track, "Trying," ends with John Chao singing over and over "I'm still trying too hard." Irony is such a cruel mistress, even when applied intentionally. [Purchase]

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Serengeti & Polyphonic :: Don't Give Up (Audio8, CD)

I'm not the person to review this. See, I don't really like hip-hop. I try. There's a couple Public Enemy tracks I really like. I like Dalek in small doses. Maybe some early Wu-Tang. But that's about it. I think a lot of potentially cool d'n'b tracks from the early- to mid-90s were ruined by rapping. I saw 808 State in 1994 or '95, and they had an MC that was so awful I walked out after 10 minutes. Who, in 1995, wanted to hear anyone rap over the brilliance of "Cubik"? If you answered "me," then I don't want to know you, because you are so far away from my musical sensibilities that we would have nothing to discuss, but a lot to argue about. Personally, a lot of music being made now is being ruined by narcoleptic, solipsistic MCs, and Don't Give Up is a fine example. But let me further qualify, before I go further, that hip-hop is not my thing at all. Doesn't pump my nads, doesn't instill a sense of amazement through deft wordsmithing, and is second on my list of musical genres from which I derive little to no pleasure, right after country. Current evidence on the table is the latest collaboration from Serengeti & Polyphonic the Verbose. And this isn't going to change my opinion too drastically. Tracks where the texture overtakes the vocals, as on the mid-eastern glitch environment of "Praha" catch my ear, but each avant-garde moment like the pitch-shifted screams of that track, is countered by the generic flow of tepid wordplay as on "2 Times 2." The idea of a solo album from Polyphonic (who, despite the rest of his name, is responsible for the music on this album) is exciting - hell, a karaoke version of this record excites me, for most of the music on this album is placed second to the lackluster lyrics and vocal stylee of Serengeti. There are some exceptions, and these exceptions take this collaboration into the neighborhood that Dalek inhabits, but for the most part, despite its tiptoes into the avant-garde, Don't Give Up is nothing for me to get too excited about. But hip-hop isn't my thing at all.

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# Retconned :: Unhappenings (Army of Bad Luck, CD)

I have been putting writing this review off for a very long time, for the simple reason that I have not been able to artfully state my opinion without falling to ad hominem attacks. Perhaps it is fate that this album has come to me, and that, via some Richard Kelly-derived wormhole, my opinion of this stinker of a record may save lives. That's my hope. Because I really really do not like this record. This record seems to have been made with the desire that no one like it. And where deliberately provocative electronic records have been made for years (see Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, and Whitehouse), the best of those records have failed at being unenjoyable, as there is a fan-base for each of those bands, and rabid fan-bases at that. So perhaps Retconned has finally achieved where others have failed and created an album that has absolutely nothing to recommend it, one that provides no pleasure, provokes nothing besides an urge to turn it off and stifles the intellectual curiosity that would keep playing it after everyone has not only left the room where this is playing, they've left the party. Musically, Unhappenings sounds like fourth-graders trying to remake the first Suicide record, with the schoolyard bully sneering, in the most dated Billy Idol sneer imaginable, ridiculously banal lyrics, things that Ogre would have written in sixth grade and then burned out of shame. I hope my point is getting through, but if it isn't, here's the bottom line: Unhappenings = no good for anything except clearing a room so thoroughly that you leave it too. [Purchase]

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Blue States :: First Steps Into (Memphis Industries, CD)

Siding with the progressive states with their name, Blue States (aka Andy Dragazis, producer for The Pipettes) eschew a progressive feel in their music, but still evoke a sense of future possibilities with First Steps Into, but into what? Sounding at times like Vangelis, late-80s Tangerine Dream, and a college-town funk band, Blue States serves up a platter of tasty treats for the feet. Mixing live drums with strings and electronics is hardly innovative, but here they sound fresh, or at least, pivotally alive. Stilted this is not. "The Electric Compliment," which buoys the album's first half as track number four, expertly moves from a sub-Sigur Ros string-laden piece to a jaunty piano-led piece with happy handclaps, enough to put a smile on your face and give the feet a good excuse to jump around. It's not high art, but what is anymore these days? This is a fine little platter for when you just want to bob your head or move your feet to a gentle yet insistent beat. [Purchase]

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V/A :: Undergrounded Vol. 3 (Fateless Flows, CD)

This collection aims to spotlight a series of California producers, each with something a little differ to offer than the other, but as a whole, that come out sounding like most other "crew comps" out there. Meaning, that there are some excellent tracks, but there is some dead weight as well. The comp opens with Reed Rothchild, aka Jess Stroup, whose track, "Mid-Air" wouldn't sound out of place on a Royksopp album. Settling in for some down-tempo trip-hop, Surface 10 is next, featuring the heart-tugging violin of Laura Escude, who gets her own track next. "Noncommital," easily the most exciting track on the disc, with Escude working solo, her violin really nailing an emotional high over crunchy idm-beats and some laptop synth. Really really super nice track. My understanding is that she makes her living from doing commercial spots in the auto industry, and sundry other commercial work. Laura, if you're reading this, please take a hiatus and do a full-length album. Further in, Sequenox drop "Ice Field," a track best described as Boards of Canada in winter, fully capturing the BOC sense of innocence in a slinky downtempo groove. Other highlights on this comp include R_Garcia's "ATL Stompin'," which brings a little bit of that early '90s-acid feel back, and freshens it up with some surprisingly enjoyable 8-bit fx. Late into the disc, Constant Flux drops the great missing braindance track, "Digital Donkey" which should totally be a white-label 12" from Rephlex. People would go nuts over this track like they did for Astrobotnia before it was revealed to be Ovuca. On the downside, there's some less than stellar material here, notably the umpteenth sampling of Timothy Leary by Tripform on "Multiple Realities." Can we all just agree that for a little while, no one is going to sample Leary? It was never innovative or daring, and his damaged ramblings have ruined more lives than they've saved. So let's just let him rest in piece, ok? Agreed? Thanks. Vic Hennegan's "Linger" has some potential to be a great one, but the sub-Goldfrapp diva wailing from guest vocalist "Becca Fuchs" make the track sound like something off the terrible final Orbital album. And Cavestar apparently believes there's still some life in the isolationist ambient genre. He's wrong, but here he tries to unsettle with "Fod," an amalgamation of watered-down Lustmord and Paul Schutze. Blah. So, to sum up. Ultimately, Undergrounded is 1/3 good, 1/3 not bad, and 1/3 bad. But when you're batting .333, you're doing ok. And like most comps these days, you can cherry-pick the best tracks from Itunes.

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Metamatics/Norken :: My Favourite Kind of Irrelevance 1997-2007 (Hydrogen Dukebox, CD)

Aaah, finally. All of your favourite Lee Norris tracks in once place. My Favourite Kind of Irreverence contains tracks from all stages of Norris' career (especially if you can get your hands on the 2 CD version, which contains a ton of his ambient work under the Nacht Plank alias, along with other more ambient tracks under Metamatics and Tone Language). The ingenious cover of "Personal Jesus" starts things out and mixes effortlessly into my personal favourite Metamatics track, "Here To Go (Days Are Gone)" which appears here in a rare 7-inch mix. And from there its all gravy, with Norken's blippy dance-bient "Southern Soul" and then the gonzo collaboration with Ultravox's John Foxx on "Free Robot," a tasty Metamatics remix of A1 People's "Do It" and another 45 minutes of some beautiful blissful techno. There isn't a bum track here, not a one. And what really makes this compilation special is that the sound of this music, the vibe, the juice, it just doesn't exist in what's coming out these days. I don't want to get all "it was better back in the day" but Irreverence.. just hammers home a point I've been trying to make for a long time, that while there is far more music being made today than there was even several years ago, very very little of it has that tangible magic that makes it special. Norris has it in spades. []

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Supersilent :: 8 (Rune Grammofon, CD)

Supersilent emerge from a five-year studio-album hiatus to engage the world as a lumbering beast, Cthulhu risen from the depths of R'lyeh to lay complete waste to the world. For 8 is mean and nasty, an angry punch to the chest, a complete change from the late-Miles fusion sounds of 5 or 6. Impossible to describe by track, 8 covers a lot of sonic territory, sludge-metal (sans guitars), music-concrete, Krautrock (sort-of), modern classical, and a form of jazz that hasn't really been explored much yet outside of this group. Supersilent's music is very intuitive, its members only ever getting together to improvise together, never to discuss their music together, only play it. And in the 10 years they've been together, they've progressed from hardcore-jazz freakouts like on 1-3, near-ambient on 6, to this unique amalgam of so many disparate genres. Recorded over five days, 8 was pared down from five hours of music by long-time producer and member Deathprod, and I'm guessing that the tape-splicing of Teo Macero was a big influence here. Much like Bitches Brew or On the Corner, Macero's splicing of longer jams resulting in some seminal jazz pieces that sound like they were in some way composed, or at least scripted out. Same thing here. This group continues to amaze in every way. Also, one caveat - there is a LOT of low-end on this record. Not enough to damage speakers, but make sure you have something with a decent bass response on it to get the full effect. [Purchase]

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Uusitalo :: Karhunainen (Huume, CD)

Good old Sasu Ripatti, as dependable as anything, thankfully prolific under a number of aliases. Here he dusts off Uusitalo, not seen since 2006's Tulenkantaja, Bearing marked similarities with that record, Karhunainen still evokes the icy atmospheres of Finland, its minimal grooves pulsing with danceably insistent basslines in the classic Ripatti style. If you've heard previous Uusitalo albums, you know what to expect here. The album as a whole does not represent an innovation in the Uusitalo sound, but further refines it, honing its chilly atmospheres in smaller chunks (see older Delay material for longer-form versions), wielding the studio as a surgical scalpel, maxing out the dub effects in all manner of compelling ways. Its hard to guess where Uusitalo can go from here, as this seems like the end of the road for this style. Luomo has hit a dead-end, Sistol is dead in the water. Delay's Whistleblower was a breath of fresh air, and this is as well, don't get me wrong, but there really isn't much further that this project can be taken without betraying its roots and going handbag or something gonzo like that. And maybe that's what should happen - just completely mix things up, say WTF, and drop a record under this alias that sounds like U96. Someone would probably call it innovative. But not this reviewer. As much as I like this record, and I do really like it, it is starting to sound like more of the same, and that I can't truck with for too long. [Purchase]

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Telephone Jim Jesus :: Anywhere Out of the Everything (Anticon, CD)

I don't know. I'm just not getting what is so special about the Anticon collective. Granted, hip-hop is not my thing (see Serengeti & Polyphonic review above), and instrumental hip-hop even less so. I remember getting burned on the Dr. Octagon instrumental album back in like '97, finding its supposedly innovative beats soporific, narcissistic, and ultimately useless. 10 years on, I'm reminded of that record by this one, another vain and futile attempt at mixing hip-hop beats with electronic atmospheres, So Telephone Jim Jesus (what's this name supposed to mean, anyway?) tries and fails at making compelling music, or music that demands replaying, but at least he tried and in that attempt lies redemption. Adding more music to the landscape of electronic music lowers its signal-to-noise ratio, but there's always that chance, a one-in-a-thousand chance that a producer will hit the right buttons, program the right beats, sequence the best melody, and nail it, even if for one track. Jim Jesus comes close on a couple, "Featherfall," opener "Did You Hear?," but misses the mark more often. And hey, that's fine, at least he tried, which is more than I can say for myself. [Purchase]

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