Marcus Schmickler – Palace of Marvels (Queered Pitch) 8.0

                Don’t operate heavy machinery while listening to this. I’m not kidding. Every time I tried to get up and move around I felt confused as to what was going on. Clearly this is an indication of exactly what sort of bizarre material you’re about to dive into. Marcus’s work usually seems pleasant to me, but this is the first release of his where I can really sink my teeth into the material. 

                Arpeggios are served up, cut up, and subjected to a “Shepard Tone”. This gives the illusion of a tone which is continually ascends or descends in pitch. That’s where the drunken feeling of the music comes from as you try to sort out if there’s a melody or any sort of movement. Maybe there is, but that’s never completely certain.

                Is this strange music? Oh yes, it most definitely challenges the listener. Oddly, despite the academic origins of the music, it is enjoyable on a casual level. Pieces of Hecker’s modus operandi are clearly on display, without any of the more psychotic elements his music usually employs.

                Using arpeggiated synthesizer tones allows the music to become considerably easier to access. Common themes run throughout the album, so if you like the first track, that should give you some indication of whether or not you can get through the rest of this. This is worth listening to, since it is such a unique take on sound.

CD_Slopper – SaskieWoxi 3.8

                A duo of Florian Hecker and Oswald Berthold (from Farmers Manual) come together to create a rather strange album. Consisting entirely of jagged pieces of digital garbage and noise, it completely confounds the listener’s expectations of what sound should do. Some parts of this get extremely loud, and conjecture up images of an extremely unstable molecule. Unfortunately, the lack of coherence or a unifying theme besides random chance makes it hard to enjoy or digest.

                By no means are Hecker or Berthold strangers to an unorthodox approach to music. Usually though their experiments, as obtuse as they can be, do generally have a purpose. With this, it appears pure chance music. While that gives it a certain appeal, it lacks the sort of rigor Hecker puts into his project or what Berthold adds to Farmers Manual.

                Instead, you’re presented with 44 tracks of digital debris. Combining this with another, more unifying theme, like what Mark Fell gave to his “Ten Types of Elsewhere” might have helped in making this more approachable, enjoyable, and interesting. Even putting various similar sounds or suites might have helped in making this a better album.

                Pieces and moments exist on here which point to greater things, but they are never elaborated upon. Instead, you’re even a giant stream of data incoherently presented. That’s unfortunate, as usually these two artists have much to say.

Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor 9.2

Hecker occupies a realm of experimental electronics that very few ever venture. Acid in the Style of David Tudor represents sort of a completion of various projects and ideas that he has been exploring through various one-off releases and art gallery presentations.

Nothing that would be considered “natural” noises is used here. Usually an artist will try to reference some sort of environmental phenomena in their work, either through snares, organ, drone, etc. This is the most pure computer music you will find and it is taken to some heady extremes.

The warning on the CD states that “Headphone use is not recommended”. Headphones are alright for listening to it, but due to the extreme three dimensional qualities of the pieces, it is much better to let the sounds roam around the room. 

“Recordings for Rephlex”, Hecker’s release for the Rephlex label, gave you some inkling of what sounds were interesting to him. “Precedence” and later the entire album of “Hecker, Holler Tracks” began his obsession with spatiotemporal confusion. With this release though, he basically saw those ideas through to their logical conclusion.

Jarring effects introduce you to the album. The “ASA” tracks serve as a way to sort of clear your head for the next onslaught. “Acid in the Style of David Tudor” tracks are the opposite; they brim with life and flirt with groove and tempo, though rarely comfortably settling with either. And the closer “Ten” pretty much mixes it all together to have a mono, bi-aural and stereo sound. That means that the sound digs deep into your ears, mine tickled upon hearing this very odd piece.

Ultimately, it is reassuring that there are artists still exploring the furthest reaches of what digital music can do. And although some may claim that Hecker’s music is self-consciously off-putting, there remains a current humor that makes the proceedings surprisingly playful.