Ancestors
Styles Upon Styles follow that ace BAT single with three stealthy, motorik techno mutations from Mexico City's White Visitation. 'Permanent Swing' synchs swirling machine patter and rolling square bass as a tentative opener for the tight, latinate shuffle groove and subtly ascendent chord and guitar slivers of the Moritz Von Oswald-esque 'Home', and 'Blood Revision' cruises out on a gauzy autobahn/highway tip coming off like a technoid cousin of Willie Burnett's Black Deer gear.
Domino
Dukes of Chutney is John Paul Jones and Dustin Lynn, California born brothers from other cosmic mothers who met surfing over a decade ago. The flavor of the Dukes musical chutney is an abstract but balanced mixture of many disciplines. Under the moniker Tom Croose, Jones has established a beguiling production touch to various edits and remixes. Lynn is an accomplished filmmaker who has collaborated with artist Gabriel Orozco and directed campaigns for designers Alexander McQueen and Corto Mol…
Versions
Grandly orchestrated versions of highlights from the Zola Jesus back catalogue, arranged by none other than classically trained industrial survivor JG Thirlwell (aka Foetus, aka Manorexia). Conceived for a performance at New York’s Guggenheim Museum at the climax of her Conatus world tour, these tremulous string settings are really what Nika Roza Danilova’s tender but polished vocals have always been begging for, and the sensitivity and focus of Thirlwell’s charts, beautifully realised by the Mi…
No. 2
Developed over a four year period, and entirely funded by a part time job working as a SAT university entrance exam mathematics tutor, Nº2 was composed using synthesizers and a variety of unidentiï¬ÂÂÂed samples that were manipulated beyond recognition. Christina Vantzou then collaborated with Minna Choi of the San Francisco based Magik Magik Orchestra. Vantzou and Choi worked on the notation and arrangements and recorded the compositions with a 15-piece ensemble at Tiny Telephone studios in S…
The Blackout
Thrill Jockey seem to be snapping up lots of underground faves, Barn Owl, Eternal Tapestry, Wooden Shjips, Sun Araw, and now Tunnels. For several years, Tunnels has been the moniker for the solo output of Nicholas Bindeman. Over time Bindeman's sound has evolved from the slow, breathing landscapes of his earlier ambient/drone releases (Colour Seance, Vexations) to completely fried-out bedroom psych explorations (Astral Collage, In Between Dreams). The Blackout delves into a world of sound un…
Belomancie
Sun Araw yields his most cryptic glyph to date with 'Belomancie' for Drag City. Replete with a recommendation "to give 'Belomancie' your full attention, and to listen at the highest volume that is comfortable on high quality speakers with a pronounced stereo field or on an excellent pair of headphones", it's the most cerebral and focussed effort we've yet heard from Cameron Stallones', acutely contrasting with his looser, noisier psychedelic dub excursions. Its predominantly electronic palette a…
Ganymede
Inspired in equal measure by the throbbing urbanity of coastal cities, continental European art-rock experimentation, left-ï¬Ã‚Âeld techno, and the freewheeling punk aesthetic of contemporary home studio recording, Jonas Reinhardt’s music transcends its inï¬Ã‚‚uences to bring into being a work that’s wholly new while referencing a celebrated aesthetic of the past. Jonas Reinhardt's 'Ganymede' is an experimental science ï¬Ã‚Âction ï¬Ã‚Âlm set on the solar system's largest moon. On Ganymede, i…
Music from Computer
Music From Computer is an exquisite repackaging of influential works from early computer music Jean-Claude Risset, spanning the years 1968 – 1985. It illuminates a fascinating intersection between old-world classicism, musique concrete, and synthesis. Recollection GRM presents computer works from French composer Jean-Claude Risset. "Sud" (1985): This work was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, from a project initiated by the GRM, where it was produced circa 1984-1985. The piece m…
Traces Two
2014 repress, Recollections GRM presents four "forgotten" and compelling electro-acoustic pieces from the institute's world famous archive. Recollection GRM, a label within the Editions Mego family of labels, offers a second selection from the vast archives of Groupe De Recherches Musicales (GRM). "The idea of the Traces series is to unearth from the GRM Archives short, forgotten, or ignored pieces of music. This second volume, which gathers works prior to 1976, features the 'early' works of f…
Traces One
Another indispensable glimpse into the GRM archive courtesy of the mighty Editions Mego, 2014 repress. Beatriz Ferreyra's "L' Orvietan" (1970) is a work composed of two separate movements, the first drawing from electronic sounds, the second from concrète ones. These two sources do not meet, but tend equally towards sound antagonism and a complementarity of spirit. Philippe Carson Turmac's (1961) was created from machine-sounds from the Stuyvesant factories (Holland). Three movements foll…
Mountains Mountains Mountains
Mountains re-release this excellent slab of organic electroacoustic drone on Thrill Jockey. Following on from his exceptional Type long-player, Field Rituals, Koen Holtkamp regroups with cohort Brendon Anderegg for a long-awaited new Mountains release. Previously encountered on the duo's own Brooklyn-based Apestaartje label, the Mountains sound proved to be one of the most organic and natural examples of how acoustic instrumentation and digital electronics might be merged together. Plugging guit…
Ecstasy & Refreshment
Further down the highway from last year's ace split with Roy Orb D.MT., Food Pyramid reach for lush neo Krautrock heights on 'Ecstasy & Refreshment'. They first break orbit with 'Dexedream''s stellar trajectory powered by twin-panned guitars and rocking rhythm machines to zones of swirling vocals, plateauing at the dreamy psych-house plains of 'Pacifier' and spinning dubwise with the corkscrewing, Ekoplekz-meets-Sun Araw-like scramble of Deep Fantasy'. Up there, the chiming African guitar chops …
NYC, Hell 3:00 AM
James Ferraro takes inspiration from "the things I see" in his 'NYC, Hell 3:AM' dystopia. The follow-up to 'Sushi' is a wry reflection of his locale, "a surreal psychological sculpture of American decay and confusion" evoking imagery of "rats, metal landscape, toxic water, junkie friends, HIV billboards, evil news, luxury and unbound wealth, exclusivity, facelifts, romance, insane police presence and lonely people... all against the sinister vastness of Manhattan's alienating skyline." Of course…
Joke in the hole
Black Dice bod returns to DFA with a playful solo LP of sample-splitting psychotomimetic grooves. Like an unhinged, PCP-huffing cousin of Smith 'N Hack, Copeland deranges plunderphonic globs into stomping, jerry-rigged and unstable structures, equal parts garage rock, wayward blues, disco, techno and avant-garde noise collage. Yet far from being a total mess, 'Joke In The Hole' is possibly his most "musical" effort to date, enriched with fragments of melodic hooks that give something to hold ont…
Harmonie du Soir
Rhys Chatham's 'Harmonie Du Soir' presents three compositions. The title track is the first major piece written for the configuration of six electric guitars, electric bass and drums since Die Donnergtter (1986). The second is The Dream of Rhonabwy, a piece written for large brass ensemble and percussion, realized in 2012 by a 70-piece brass band called Harmonie de Pontarlier, lead by the French conductor Patrick Erard. The last track on the CD version and bonus download for the vinyl edition is…
Swisher
The Blondes duo refract their house abstractions through a smudged psychedelic prism on 2nd album 'Swisher' for RVNG Intl. Picking up where their eponymous debut left off, Sam Haar and Zach Steinman start with the kosmic organ swell and atom-split rhythms of 'Aeon' before locking down to a driving, technoid momentum with 'Bora Bora' which carries through the album in the glyding dub-house gait of 'Andrew' to the ornate, future-baroque arpeggios of 'Poland' to the laser-grabbing, Belgian-styled t…
Variations: a movement in chrome primitive
2014 new reissue. Having sat through two full cd’s of some of the most sublime, drifting piano based variations I’ve ever heard im not quite sure how to go about putting the experience into words. Whilst 'archival' may bring to mind dusty stacks in library basements, there's a slew of old material being reissued by labels at the moment that might just serve to extinguish this semantic connection. A digital reappraisal is American composer William Basinksi, whose extensive 'Variations: A Movement…
Nepenthe
Julianna Barwick returns with the successor to 2011's charming The Magic Place. Given how successful that self-recorded LP was, it’s surprising to see that the Louisiana-born singer has looked to an external producer to document and frame her work this time around, namely Sigur Ros associate Alex Somers. Barwick once again uses delay-pedals to build heaven-scraping towers of chorused plainsong out of her earnestly, achingly pretty soprano, placing them in what John Foxx - whose 90s’ ambient reco…
August Undone
Sweeping and rustically romantic neo-classical and drone flights seemingly dropped from the sky on the wonderful Students Of Decay label "From the very first seconds of “Within/Without,” listeners familiar with the output of Aquarelle, the nom-de-plume of Madison, WI-based sound artist Ryan Potts, will find themselves in territory that is at once familiar and new. This opening salvo explodes into being with the surging, analog fuzz blooms and preternatural sense of rhythm that endeared many to …
Field Recordings from Mali (Bush Taxi Mali)
Bush Taxi Mali: Field Recordings from Mali is an aural tour through the heart of Mali. These field recordings were made by Tucker Martine in 1998 while traveling throughout the West African country. This blend of bluesy ngonis, clamoring street sounds, the stunning voice of Jalimusa Amanita Diabaté (of the famous Diabaté family), passing radios, Fulani flutes, runaway sound systems, and chants from the Dogon country creates a unique portrait of Mali's rich musical heritage. Eventually Martine fo…