This is part one. Part two is coming shortly.
These are a few new CD's out of the pile I got last week.
Will continue to excavate, but here are the more relevant
reviews to albums getting talked about on the list right now.
Boulderdash: We Never Went to Koxut Island CD (RUC)
I only have one negative comment about Boulderdash’s new CD:
the cover artwork is awful. Just awful. Drab, retro, blah.
Dogs having sex? Silly, but not appealing silly. I realize 90% of this
album’s sales are going to come from word of mouth, not attractive
imagery, but give me a break. Anyway. This is a very good album.
For some reason it seems like a release Jazz Fudge, Ninja Tune or
even Mo’Wax would be all over; downtempo, jazzy, mellow, it’s like
something to listen to on headphones in an Amsterdam hash bar.
The international damage machine sensibilities are not absent, in
either the click and clack of the drum pattern or the soft omnipresent
wash of the keyboards in the back, or the occasional upward bound
etheral sample that floats through the melodies to escape above. One of the
things I’m particularly impressed about is the unity of the tracks,
something that is much easier to do in uptempo 313 than in downtempo
melodic electronica. Even in BoC or in Plod the drums at times are
too forward, too hard and too noticable. In Boulderdash they almost
disappear, holding up the tracks as an invisible restraint from within.
The bubbly melodies and the heavy use of echo don’t hurt either. In
many ways this is the same style as Boards or Bola, but instead of
101’s (Mike and Marcus) or acid paraphenelia (Mr. Fitton) the ‘Dashers
tend towards the soft jazz, or even easy listening angle. Just because
they employ different sounds doesn’t mean they don’t know about
technique, and applying the correct one is key. In many ways I also
prefer this to the Skam luminaries: I think this album is not only tougher
to pull off but is an album I’ll find myself reaching for consistently. It
not only works in a set, but it works in many listening enviornments,
and most of the tracks are just stupendous all the way through. Man,
that washy reverb and those impossibly gentle and reflecting keyboard
taps are just enticing. Downtempo jazzy IDM is one of the hardest styles to
be both
fresh and entertaining in, and Boulderdash have pulled it off impressively,
especially on a debut to not only have mastered a difficult sound but to
have made an album with almost no filler tracks (even Black Dog and
Kenny Larkin never quite got there). I am not a fan of jazz or trip-hop,
two terms that seem applicable to this release, but I enjoyed it none the
less,
and I would figure those who appreciate those styles (the vast majority)
are absolutely correct that this is a standout release.
Gain Structure CD (Top Score)
This disc was a fresh review for me (no advance hype, no comments
on what sort of music to expect, no advance previewing of the sound,
no knowledge of the artists involved), so it was at least an intriguing
first listen. What did I find? A wildly varied compilation: we go from
distorted big beat on the first track to a standard beat with drawn out
sound clouds and processed voices on the second to a short, glitchy,
static/off-sound laden nigh-beatless workout on the third. It’s off to
a Schematic/Autechrey number on the fourth (though a bit more bouncy
and fast paced) and a very minimal, homey analog interlude on the fifth,
before
the sixth track comes full circle, sounding just like the fourth. I counted
eight separate artists on this, but the album is too varied and too lackluster
for my tastes: not only do the tracks clash with one another but none of
them have any real emotional impact on this listener, and the sounds just
travel alongside each other like cars on a four lane highway. I think if
you took all sixteen (yes, sixteen, quite a lot for a single CD comp)
tracks and merged them together you’d have something approaching the
complexity of Autechre’s better late work, but everything sounds like the
square root of IDM. Not a keeper. One standout track was definitely
Casino vs. Japan’s “Warm Windows Remix”, a deep, resonant,
cosmic track with suitably eerie and mystical allusions, but I’ll still
file this away with Schematic, Outward Music Company, Emanate,
Car Park, Involve and many other new IDM labels in my “for sale” pile.
If those labels are up your alley, however, you would likely enjoy this.
Norken: Soul Static Bureau CD (Beau Monde)
New solo full-length from Lee Norris, and while I never much cared
for the Metamatics (or much of Clear’s output, for that matter) I sure
got into this, even if it wasn’t called “Massacre at Manchester Stadium”.
“Soul” and “static” are two appropriate terms: this is friendly minimal
tech-house on a flatline. Definitely a home-listening experience (gentle,
soothing and almost monotone) although many of these tracks would
serve to slow down and relax a dancefloor. While your music collection
won’t have a dark raincloud over it until you get this, you should still
check it out if a mellow, non-confrontational take on the Ferox or Playhouse
style sound appeals to you. Plus I’d say most of the songs are especially
suited for a DJ’s hands as I didn’t get into the first thirty or fourty-five
seconds of many of them (the harder drum parts before the soft, cooling
melodies and basslines get thrown in). Nice effort.
Gramm: Personal Rock CD (Source)
A full-length (we are elated!) from Jan Jelinek, also known as
Farben (“colors”) from one of Germany’s most highly regarded
minimal electronic labels, Klang. A lot of these minimal producers
are showing that selectivity is the key: while you’ll notice I criticized
Emanate or Top Score or other releases for being overly minimal
this album is still more minimal and yet highly effective. There is a
definite sense of Basic Channel devotion (“St. Moritz”) and also a
real sense of comraderie with UK wunderkids SND or the Icelandic
Thule stable. There is Betkean crackling below ground, light whirling
airy sounds at sea level and popping drums and methodical scratches bouncing
above, and we are left with what is sure to be one of the better records
this genre produces in 2000. If Clicks and Cuts shows everyone
practicing this style, Personal Rock shows one of the people who
is taking it to the next level. The future sound of Berlin. Wonderful.
Update: out of all the records I got in this package (around twenty)
this one both impressed me the most on first listen and has worked the
best on repeated play. The first essential full-length of 2000.
Elements of Light CD (21/22 Corp.)
Overview of the output of Ohio’s obscure 21/22 Corp. label, producers
practicing perhaps some of the most precise and meted techno in the
world. This is matter of fact techno and serves as one of the links
between the minimalism of Germany and the lush, deep strings of
Detroit: it covers all the edges and is a balanced meeting of punchy,
austere tech-house and deep, warm, emotional 313. I can’t remember
a release where I thought the sounds were so tight and balanced.
In many ways I prefer the more polarized sounds of minimal techno or
deep techno, but this compilation deserves respect for the obvious
care and the skillful sense of rhythm and development that went into it.
Definitely something that would serve as instructional and engaging,
and a worthwhile release, to be certain.
Matt
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