Yu Miyashita –Noble Niche 6.7

                Yu Miyashita starts off a new revival of the legendary label Mille Plateaux. Mille Plateaux has had a troubled existence since it went defunct in 2003. Now we’re beginning to see some semblance of order out of the chaos strewn across multiple bankruptcies, etc. In a way Yu Miyashita embodies some of the past and future of the label’s future: beginning to forge a new path but not quite there yet. 

                “Noble Niche” might as well have been called “Noble Glitch”. The sheer amount of glitch techniques employed on here is a tad bit massive. If you’re familiar with Mille’s output in the late 90s/early 00s you won’t be surprised or shocked by Yu’s approach. Basically he takes the best of melody deconstruction and controlled chaos.

                The beginning of this album is amazing. It is in the beginning where Yu does the best job asserting his personality. “Latatan” blasts through with an impending sense of collapse. While it near fully collapses it manages to stay afloat despite the distortion. “Noble Niche” comes in as another gloriously overstuffed track full of life and energy.

                Unfortunately Yu doesn’t manage to keep things this inventive for the entire album. Other songs appear to be concepts better executed by bands years ago. “Symmetrical Snare” sounds like something SND did in 2000 called “Stdio”. Microstoria created many of the approaches employed in the other tracks, particularly “Scrypt”.

                I enjoyed this album even with these limitations. They are noticeable particularly to anyone well-versed in glitch. Yu essentially has a tasteful approach on old ideas, never a bad thing, but he doesn’t explore the genre any further. Only in the beginning of the album do I see the potential for better, more overwhelming approach. After the initial blast of optimism I’m left with a relatively stale approach which is doubly disappointing considering all the creativity he displays in the beginning.

Antonelli Electr. – Love and Other Solutions 6.5

There’s an unfortunate effect for a lot of electronic music: it ages. What might have seemed hip and cool once it first came out doesn’t anymore. Instead you’re left with something someone labored over that might now be quite stale. Here Stefan Schwander’s album is one such example.

                Now it doesn’t completely fail. Songs like “Augustine” still sound surprisingly good 8 years on. Others like “Waiting for You” are partly ruined by those violin plucks, a feature never really lovely. Violin plucks ruin the melody, making it much cuter than it needed to be. Had some similar elements been excised from the album it might be sweeter. My request would be for the clicks to have been removed, as they reek of the time (remember cuts and clicks on Mille Plateaux? Yeah, I didn’t think so.)

                Overall though, this isn’t terrible. Had Antonelli focused more on the bass side of things (which is admittedly a big draw of the music) it could have aged better. Nonetheless it is still a fairly likable album, even with its flaws.      

Stilluppsteypa – Stories Part Five 7.6

Iceland proves once again that it is a breeding ground for the strangest of bands. Stilluppsteypa maintains a punk attitude through this experimental and often challenging release. To keep your attention a bit more focused, they often reference (sarcastically) other more popular musical forms, like Drum N’ Bass and rudimentary dance music.

“Nice Things to File Away Forever!” should prove to be a fairly decent introduction, if perhaps a bit more abstract than the rest of the album. Once you get through this colossal track, the going gets considerably easier. What follows is the strange dance-like track of “Which Serve the Purpose Not Only” and later the idea is revisited in “When I was eight years old”.

What works best is the hyper-kinetic “All Drummers Shiver”. Mixing together a translucent drone with a fast rhythm, it then goes into even faster territory, as if the beat is trying to escape some sort of impending doom. 

Ritornell released some very daunting music during its brief lifespan, generally stuff considered “too avantgarde” for Mille Plateaux. But this is fairly easy to get into, even if you’re not usually inclined towards experimental music.

Second Childhood