howdy ho,
'tis the season for top 10 of the years but quite honestly, i've been
interested in so few commercial releases this year, i probably wouldn't say
much of interest in that particular arena. in fact, many of the most
interesting releases i've heard this year were demos, so i figured i would
put together a list of my favourites of the year, along with some
comments. only unsollicited demos included, all in alphabetical
order. don't be surprised if you see some of these folks issued on CD by
no type next year...
if you are interested in contacting one of the artists below, please email
me & i'll forward your message directly to them if i can. (i just don't
want to give out email addresses without their permission.)
===
1. l'artificiel _le paradoxe abrutissant_ (canada)
this demo from quebec city came with no explanations, so i figured it was
probably (yet) another 'abstract' release, but it turned out to be a rather
riotous drill n bass record with cheesy videogame/trance melodies! surely
i didn't expect this to be my bag, but l'artificiel puts so much work in
his songs as to make them very interesting once you decide to listen
intently. something about it is almost 'prog' because themes vary so much
through a single song. of course, it's quite groovy & easy to listen to
casually too, so you can always put it in the background as well. i still
don't know what to think of this, & the 12-track demo has a few weak spots
especially towards the end, but some of the tracks are just really cool, &
the beats are actually VERY competent, not to say expert.
2. coin gutter _the promise of lomonosov_ (canada)
to be true, the first track makes it all worthwhile. it is so bold &
succesful, you just want to listen to it over & over again. the rest is
powerful & evocative. the duo isn't as inventive when they make more
'drony', less evolving material, but they pull it off quite well
still. i've ranted enough about this canadian duo so you should know by
now that i like them, so much that no type will release many of these
tracks on the upcoming coin gutter full length, to see the light of day in
early 2003.
3. diskette (USA)
chris coady from baltimore offers a 6-track demo that sounds quite dry, &
is not always easy to approach for that reason. but it's quite a singular
piece of music nonetheless--most usually in the field of random-influenced
beats & minimal melodies. track 3 detracts from this with a beatless
melodyscape, but it turns out to be the most accessible & engrossing of all.
4. eto ami _course_ (USA)
i saw this mentioned in someone else's top 10, & i will chime in with a
recommendation. nice, complex material from this US-based duo. the
variety is appreciated, & some of the tracks are really well done. this
might shine better with a little weeding out the weaker tracks though,
because right now it all seems a bit undirected which is a shame because
the potential is obviously there.
5. johannes helden _fri_ (norway (if i remember well))
it's very hard to impress me with an ambient CD. you're more likely to put
me to sleep. johannes helden's music might be 'background music' in a
sense but it's also quite the kind i like. the aesthetic is very
static--hiss, radio noise & other such 'hushed' sound phenomena make up the
ambient threads contained herein. the structure of course doesn't reinvent
the wheel, but it's suitably well accomplished & serves the sounds well. a
very nice thing to listen to, that is unobtrusive without being bland.
6. holzkopf _shooting at the sun with bullets_ (canada)
jake hardy is definitely onto something. this brave composer from
saskatoon is working quite hard to put a new face to noise, & he does so by
mixing the new & the old in quite a personal, powerful way. i liked his
demo from last year _only a bad harvest can save us_ (now issued on the
dainty deathy label), but this is different: beats & noise, used in a way
that is not so far off from loud metal/grindcore, or even bands like the
dead C. needless to say, it's difficult but intense--in fact, the
intensity itself might just make it easy for most listeners to overcome the
difficulty! supposedly this is about the boredom of suburban life. i can
relate, & i think i saw that in it too...
7. andrey kiritchenko _bees & honey_ (ukraine)
this 5-track demo is... quite pretty, if a bit derivative of work heard
elsewhere (one thinks of oval & everything that came after.) of course
this is not a bad thing in itself because kiritchenko is talented enough to
make the music shine through. & believe you me, 'bees & honey' are
conveyed... it's all quite pastoral in fact, you can easily imagine the
landscape which these songs are aiming to allude to. it's pretty, yes.
8. metaxu _rumors of war_ (italy)
metaxu is the duo of maurizio martusciello & filippo paolini & this is to
become their second album (first eponymous one released on plate
lunch.) of course martusciello is not unknown, he's part of z_e_l_l_e with
nicola catalano (one CD out on line/12k) & has released a mini-CD with
métamkine some years back. _rumors of war_ is, as its title implies, a
somewhat (geo)politically-inspired album, with its titles all referring to
tragic dates & places in recent human history, from '28061914 sarajevo' to,
you guessed it, '11092001 new york'--dates & places which prefigured, or
embodied episodes of war. the music is suitably sordid, with beautiful
strings providing the feeling of tragedy, & a gentle clickscape in the back
forming the rhythm. at times this all sounds very pretty in fact, but the
composers are twisted enough to add an edge to their music; so you can
sometimes hear gun clicks, people screaming, war broadcasts, but only in
certain highly strategic, fleeting times. in a certain way this recording
plays with the expectation, & even the temptation of war, as if to show we
humans are stupid enough to find beauty even in the worst horrors. for
that reason, it's a highly disturbing project but it's in my CD player all
the time. if all goes well, this will be released on no type sometime next
year.
9. mixel pixel _22 songs_ (USA)
this demo from NYC is, well, electronic videogame ROCK. well, the indie
kind of rock. i spent my teenage years listening to pavement, sonic youth
& pixies, & then pretty much abandoned this lot for the world of electronic
music, but this speaks to me in ways i wouldn't have thought an indie rock
record could speak to me after all these years. truth is, rob (the main
guy behind mixel pixel) is extremely genuine about his art, & his most
recent tracks ('silver sparkle amps', 'desert falcon', 'body automatic'...)
are far more than just 'interesting': they're positively awesome! although
the comparison might seem strange, i think i like mixel pixel for the same
reason as i like pram: mysterious, slightly absurd lyrics, well-dosed
melancholy in the music--oddball instrumentation & amazing song
construction. & it's completely infectious. basically, this CD-R lives in
my CD player.
10. n.kra _digital_ (USA)
starting with a strict videogame rendition of the US national anthem (in
case you wonder--i always skip this one), this CD goes on to many twists &
turns, including short noisy IDM tracks, intense drony parts, & assorted
weird shit. everything is delineated very sharply which highlights the
changes & the quickness of most of the tracks. what draws me to this demo,
despite its imperfections (i.e. it sometimes gets a bit tiresome) is that
it's quite unlike anything i've heard before: what strange demons, what
bizarre muse is n.kra listening to? & who knows...
11. joerg piringer _vokal_ (austria)
'yet another microsound experiment' is what it could have been--the
composer mentions that it was made exclusively out of recordings of the
human voice, with no synthetisers & other instruments used. interestingly,
there is another recent CD around this concept: the surprising _original
instrument_ project on kracfive records (featuring colongib, octopus inc,
kettel & miragliuolo, & highly recommended around these parts...) while
_original instrument_ maintains a certain 'IDM' (i'm using the term
loosely) framework, piringer's demo is far more abstract, though perhaps
not as bizarre... i believe this is to be taken in the context of
experimental poetry, in which context it's a great, thought out, diverse &
complex project even as it's mostly the product of seemingly simple
repetitions, layering & processing (& making a 70+minute album interesting
is no mean feat in itself!) so far as microsound experiments go, this is
for sure one of the more involving i've heard all year.
12. dick richards _demo 01_ (canada)
when i want some great minimal 4/4 beats, i immediately turn to dick
richards. there's an affinity to maurizio (of basic channel fame) in his
music & that's just what i love about it: the groove never lets down, no
matter how sparse the beats & basslines. surely this 10-track demo is not
ALL stellar, but many of the tracks have quickly grown to be favourites
around these quarters. nice surprise also with the more subdued track
_twfstmx1_, very sexy yet subtle. the best track is probably _klaus kinski
is solid_ that has a perfectly timed 'woosh' arriving just midway through
the song, bringing in the spark of genius that makes it all work. he's
released a CD this year with the raum...musik label, _amanecer_, which is
quite nice, really.
===
so that's that. hope this list was enjoyable, & that the artists not
included aren't iffed by not being included. this is, after all, only my
own measly opinion.
happy holidays to all,
~ david
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