Here are reviews of some records I bought the other day at the fine record
shop subvox in tucson arizona. Hello proprietors of subvox records.
They are not necessarily new, but 99.99% of humanity still hasn't heard
them so if you have you'll just have to be patient as the rest of us
catch up.
jega(skam):
Experimental type stuff, though it's hardly an experiment anymore.
Card Hore is the stand out song because it doesn't sound like any of
the others- high speed jungle used as the background, wacky tacky
effects used as the foreground. The rest is noisy samples, crunches
and synth washes.
A pretty good record, even. It doesn't have many of the features that
make a record great- emotional depth and the like - but it does have
all of the features that make a record neat and fun to have.
influx(isophlux):
Yet more noisy post-everything crunchy beats, out of tune pianos, squelches
and such. Remarkably, this one's by an American, and put out on an American
label. Solid.
cylob: industrial folk songs(rephlex):
An extreme example of noise. Feedback squeals, metallic clanks, that sort
of thing. Repetitive. Nothing like Chris Jeffs' other work, but then,
not much is. This is his famous dark side. I guess it's folk songs that
industrial robots, mills, CNC lathes and the Haas VR-11 five axis profiling
VMC with 120" x 40" x 30" travels must sing to each other those long lonely
industrial nights. I like the second song on the side with the coil on it
best.
gescom: key nell(skam):
Ok, I'm someone who doesn't like Autechre very much, but this is pretty
good. More whacked out than lots of their other stuff, and less mnml.
I'm told that this is a classic. I'm not so sure about that. They use
cliche organ or whatever hits from time to time, and melodies I swear I've
heard before. They make a good contrast with the clanging noisy percussion.
I like it best when it's just the melody . . . pretty.
I'm sure that we'll all look back on these string samples that pervade so
many tracks on so many albums by so many people, including this one, and
shudder. Like big hair and leather jackets, they're contagious.
It's good. Comes in bubblewrap. Sounds good at 33 and 45(33 is "correct").
Probably unavailable.
kinesthesia volume one(rephlex):
Somewhat between industrial folk songs and empathy box. Since this one was
first I suppose those are continuations of styles introduced here. 4 songs.
kinesthesia: empathy box(rephlex):
(I didn't buy this at subvox but since I brought it up it's only fair)
This is not the type of album that gets much play on this list nowadays:
there is nary a wicked beat. It is better because of it. Most of the
music is sentimental synths and other sad sounds, with just enough thrown
in once in a while to make it disturbing or subversively cheery. It avoids
becoming too sappy, but someone who overheard me listening to it a while
ago commented on the "new age mood music" I was listening to.
The track titles are particularly stupid, and on the cd at least they are
listed in a difficult manner.
postscript:
For those that are interested, the best things I've picked up recently
actually are the new sonic youth eps, headcoatitude by thee headcoats,
mommy's little monster by social distortion(their first) and r.l. burnside's
too bad jim. So rebelliously off topic!