ANBB - Mimikry (Raster Noton 2010)

God Blixa's looking a little healthier & fuller of face these days. Doesn't look like he's sprinkling heroin on stale cornflakes every morning, like i'm sure he did once. Instead, he's collaborating with Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) producing dramatic electronic vistas & passages of aural dystopia that are both brittle & expansive, haunting & challenging. There's definately a Neubauten feel to tracks such as 'Once Again' but they've got this weird glitchy, tonal thing on that is prime Alva Noto. It's like Peter Gabriel having a nervous breakdown at a fetish club in Berlin. I think there's summat strangely kitsch about the previous single 'One', he makes a weird crooner does Bargeld. That track also reminds me of Robert Wyatt in a way, yet I don't think the beardy one would smother a song in frosty electronic pulses & glitchy cowlicks. Dave just asked me what "this bullshit" was. I like it when my colleagues wax lyrical about experimental music so eloquently. So if you want some proper deconstructed minimal techno with occasional industrial overtones or just love the sound of stuttering, fizzing machines intermingled with flecks of neo-classicism & the deranged ramblings of one of Germany's most pioneering avant-garde statesmen then get involved. Not as all over the shop as I was expecting & undeniably powerful & progressive to boot. *Norman Records

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Concert Silence - Rain Furniture (infraction 2010)

In this project, we find Matthew Cooper, moonlighting from his Eluvium dayjob, communing with Charles Buckingham on a project dubbed Concert Silence - a recording captured then released. Word had hardly spread among ambience-chasers and Eluvium-spotters before it was withdrawn, taking on a mythical Shangri La-like aspect, to be ever-pursued - spoken of with a faraway wistful look.

Generally speaking these tracks work in a far more subtle way than on the album... The short opener 'With Bicycles' eases things in gently with a distant trebly rhythm working in the background while warm and soothing suggestions of melody battle it out for front place in the mix, until they eventually become a single enveloping, comforting somehow familiar friend.

'Strange Footing' continues with the same sound palette in a sort of dimmed down fashion to begin with, making the previous track sound like a distant memory. A little like a loop stuck in your head but somehow constantly evolving. For me this works on an almost dubby level and as the sounds are pushed to the fore they begin to develop their own idiosyncrasies; a slow yet functional muted percussive stomp becomes the skeleton for THAT hypnotic synth phrase, while small pops, glitches, crackles and rich ambient textures build into a fuzzy soundscape that constantly, but subtlety evolves. All the while the heartbeat of the drums is the underlying framework.

'For Leaves' works for me on many levels; the shimmering lead synth gives way to fractured micro rhythms which have a sort of reduced distortion which is all glitched up and feels like some ancient machine language magically crunching away. Then euphoric drones lift the track as it changes gear into a totally blissed out zone which eventually, gently retreats in a ghostly and emotionally resonant fashion with distant fading keys.

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Creelpolation 1 - 7" Singles (1961 - 1972)

Creel Pone was initially set up as a vehicle for small, CD sized reproductions of vintage and obscure electronic record covers, with strict attention to detail, though at first there was no actual music involved. The source material for these came from the personal collection of "Mr. Creel Pone" himself. Soon, after high demand, the actual music started to be included on CD-R, via high quality vinyl transfers. Each title is created in a limited edition run of 100, and packaged to appear as miniature lp sleeves, complete with mylar plastic slip covers and the ubiquitous Creel Pone sticker - all creating a very appealing product.

The music represented is typically of the avant-garde variety, yet covers a vast plethora of sounds: from early concrete explorations, to egghead spacetronics, to novelty cult records, to dissonant library noise, the odd "tuneful" diversion on occasion, and everything else in the wide, mostly uncharted world of electronics.

Creel Pone remains an unauthorized/bootleg venture. These are not official releases, however, due to the extreme obscurity of the titles, they remain an invaluable resource for much of this long-lost, long-forgotten music.

To celebrate their 50th release, the great Creel Pone label whipped up a 3 disc set of 7 inches, rarities, and collected oddness. Volume 1 has lots of short tracks and some more famous names like Daphne Oram or Vladimir Ussachevsky.

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Burial & Four Tet - Moth / Wolf Cub (2009)

Now then. There’s some dream collaborations that you’d probably sell yr granny, or at least her thimble & china elephant collection for but who’d have thought a 12″ knees up ‘twix Fourtet & shady non-Sun reading grimester Burial would suddenly occur out of the blue. ‘Wolf Cub’ has a beautiful tribal rhythm with it’s roots in two-step garage but instead of the paranoid urban hiss, crackle & ghostly atmospherics of Burial’s own tunes you merely get a suggestion of a disembodied flutter of spectral female vocal (right near the end!) but most of the tune’s “body” is quite reminiscent of some of Hebden’s finest work, that chiming, cascading kaleidoscopic wall of SOUND that he builds so lovingly and distinctively. ‘Moth’ is quite different, slightly less immediate but no less rich in texture and soul. The beat is quite understated and house-y, yet powerful. It’s got this really great muted melody running through it that gives it a dubby house feel and then there’s the gentlest sprinklings of chinks, chimes, atmospherics and “urban” magic but although this feels more along Burial’s minimal lines it’s definitely a “sun’s breaking over the rooftops and lighting up last night’s freshly painted graffiti by the railway lines..” vibe and not nearly as bleak & rain soaked sounding as his own output. Kevin Saunderson & some of the better Kompakt stuff have been mentioned.

Tracks:

1. Moth

2.Wolf Cub

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Harmonic 313 - When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence (2009)

When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence starts with the slumped shuffle of “Dirtbox,” which flashes on the weighty torpor of dubstep; Pritchard’s been listening hard to recent developments in dance music, and parts of this album offer his own, skewed take on these forms. Interestingly, though, When Machines... is more convincing when Pritchard’s looking back – the acid-period rhythm box of “Flaash” induces déjà vu as prickly, phosphorescent electronics pulse and twist like LCD displays on overdrive. The jewel-like quality of some of these compositions is charming, and their simplicity and unhurried development is welcome, though they sometimes risk slipping away into nothingness. There are stretches of When Machines... that pass by and refuse to lodge in the memory.

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