Area C – Map of Circular Thought 7.3

                Area C creates challenging but emotionally simulating music. The only rhythm comes from constant feedback loops. Without sacrificing the experimental nature of the music, Area C adds in joyful melodies. By including the melodies this rises above a purely academic exercise. 

                Much of this album reminds me of Christopher Willt’s early work. Guitars skip about with a disregard for conventionality. Just like Willt’s early work, there are those beautiful tones so bright, so airy; you can almost feel the sun shining through. On the earlier tracks this similarity is particularly noticeable. “Felt, Not Seen” shimmers about with a calming effect. Sure, all these noises by themselves might bother you, but together they form a gentle track.

                While the album progresses, the songs gradually get darker. The melodies become less and less distinguishable. Instead of the tactile guitar plucks and skips you hear gradually evolving drones. Sure the drones had been present for most of the album but they overwhelm by the end of the disc. “Ebbs to a Steady Bun” embraces the drone to become some massive burned-out track. 

                This is a long album. You’ll get lost in the sheer size of most of these tracks. At no point does Area C come close to conventionally. If you’re familiar with work from early Oval or Christopher Willt, you won’t be shocked with this material. If you’re not however you’re in for a very pleasant surprise. Either way it is an enjoyable, spacey album.

2562 – Fever 8.7

               2562 set one limitation for this album: everything had to be sampled from disco albums. It is the best limitation he could have set. The entire album is so fantastic; I think I’ve finally been converted over to the church of dubstep.

                Previous efforts by Dave Husimans had been a bit less house-orientated. As a huge fan of house music, particularly well-done house, I think it is probably that element which won me over. While listening to this, I’m reminded this is only his third album. Those previous albums lacked a certain something; maybe they were a bit too sparse for me.

                “Winamp Melodrama” reminds me heavily of Oval gone dance. Yes, it is that good. Beats skip; melodies are lost in constant stutters and distortion. Glitch never sounded so good or purposeful. Other parts are reminiscent of late-period IDM such as “Juxtapose” which strongly suggests Jake Mandell’s work might have had an influence.

                Other songs show off certain spaciousness. “Intermission” with its heavy bass, ideal percussion and lush sound fills its 6 minutes with nothing but giant sounds. Faster songs exist on this album too, such as the hyper-kinetic “Brasil Deadwalker”. Countless allusions are made to the best of early 90s techno, whether it is the far off hits or stabs of melody.

                My personal favorite would have to be “Final Frenzy”. It has a great buildup in it. Perhaps if 2562 was interested in hits, this would be the radio single. I’m not sure; I’m pretty addicted to electronic music in general. 

                “Fever” is a full album. There aren’t any duds. Albums like this confirm my faith in electronic music in general. Occasionally I veer away from the path of pure electronic. 2562 reminds me of my favorite albums I listened to growing up as a kid and I’m thankful to him.

Nobukazu Takemura – Scope 9.4

Oval might have created the template for glitch music, but Nobukazu Takemura gave it soul. Beginning in a surprisingly quiet manner with “On a Balloon” it builds up. Stopping for field recordings, it breathes more life into the environment. And despite its very obvious digital origins, there’s a large amount of warmth within these sounds. Somehow Nobukazu avoids the usual glitch obsession with technical detail to come up with something that has emotional resonance as well.

“Kepler” is a bit easier to get into. Using more human sounds, it has a familiar feel to it, like a warm blanket of sound keeping you snug in the winter. “Taw” does the opposite; it is extremely cold and nearly devoid of life, with large pauses of silent to heighten tension. This is as difficult as the album gets. 

None of these track compare with the track “Icefall”. Every so often you’ll be listening to an album, sort of into it, and a song comes up. This song makes you re-evaluate everything you just heard. Consider it a “Rosetta Stone” for the artist’s intention. “Icefall” is such a track. Whenever I’m feeling down or blue, this always manages to cheer me up. Words fail me with this; it flutters about like a butterfly. Listening to it, it makes me think about what would happen if a computer wrote a love song.

Honestly, what I can tell you about this album is have patience. If you’ve had previous exposure to glitch, that would help. But if you’re worried, I’d suggest listening to “Icefall” first and then deciding whether or not to give the rest a go. Obviously I’d strongly suggest this to just about anyone.

2010 end of year list begins

Just randomly picked this after googling "2010". This sort of embodies Canada's true colors.

As October reaches an end, I wonder what will make my year end list. Writing each one of these reviews, I kind of get the impression that 2009 was some sort of “bumper crop” kind of year. So many great bands came out of the woodwork, and we even got a new, actually good genre. I’m still going through all the stuff I have from the year prior, and am shocked at the quality. Definitely I shall include an “apologies for 2009” section in the top list this year. 

Sure, I think that hype was uneven distributed this year. Best Coast was an alright debut, but nothing ground shaking. Same goes for the weak genre known as “Witch House” which barely registers as different enough to count as a new category. Other bands from this year mostly got hyped more than needed (like Vampire Weekend or WAVVES, neither of which is bad but not like some sort of musical savior). 

2010 wasn’t a complete wash though. I got to finally see one of my favorite bands (Beach House) get the kind of respect that they deserved.  Autechre made up for being sort of irrelevant lately with their surprising “Move of Ten”, which had some of those melody beat workouts I adore. And yeah, LCD Soundsystem came out with another album, which is pretty much a big deal anyway you cut it. Fortunately I got to see them live as well so that was a big bonus. 10 years later people care about Ariel Pink, but that should’ve happened much sooner. His style just kind of allowed for him to be proclaimed the founder of chillwave, etc. No worries though, he’s at least going to continue to get the needed attention.

Even in such a quiet year things do get overlooked. I though Keith Fullerton Whitman’s work was absolutely stunning this year, particularly the “Generator” release, but barely anyone paid attention. Toro Y Moi got passed over too, which I was disappointed about since so many other “chillwavers” got much more thumbs up. The Chris Weisman and Greg Davis collaboration got zero attention, even though it was a deeply weird and original take on ambient music. Women did get noticed, but a bit more underappreciated than I would have liked. Oh well, I guess I’ll take what I can get. 

A few old faces came back from the cold. We got the much missed Gil Scott-Heron, who put in a solid performance. Oval returned as much and perhaps flooded the market with too much product. No one had heard anything from you in about 8 years, so multiple EPs and a double disc might come off a bit strong Mr. Popp. Speaking of too much, Uffie finally released an actual album, complete with all the disappointment that was expected. And No Age came out with an album that showed an evolution towards a maturing phase without fully abandoning all that chaos that made me like them so much in the first place. 

I feel that the music I listened to and liked the most tended to be either very ambient or dance based. Deepchord Present Echospace ruled so much, as did the brand new project VHS Head, which only teased us with an EP last year.  Indignant Senility came out of nowhere with its ultra-depressing Lynch-informed doom. 

Before I write any of these bands down, I’m going to give the year some time to hand over a few last albums (cough, Panda Bear, cough). Plus, I want to give some albums a chance to shine. Arcade Fire grew on me over the album, and I feel there may be one or two albums that I’ve already listened to but perhaps not fully connected to yet. Sometimes I think bands fail to realize that music is in fact seasonal, and that realizing a sunny cheerful album over the winter is usually a terrible idea. We’ll see what other albums come my way over the next few weeks, but I feel as if most of my top list has already been made.

So – So 8.1

So came after the last major Oval release. Being used to Oval’s usual bag of tricks, I didn’t expect anything radically different from his highly-processed noises sculpted into almost music.

Oddly enough, Erika’s vocals and guitar are actually kept in tact for long enough portions. Markus seems to have scaled back his digital chaos, instead using it more as a support to her songs than something to overwhelm. For tracks like “C” it sounds like Markus has overcome the criticism that he can only make sound, not songs. With a breezy guitar and gentle lyrics, it feels like it belongs to another artist. Erika did originally write the thing, so it is technically hers. However, the fact that Markus allowed it to speak for her for the most part is highly unusual for him.

“E” might be the closest we get to the Oval we know and love. This one too stays on the sidelines in terms of sheer volume, allowing fragments of quiet tones make their emotional imprint.

That’s probably the reason I like this album so much. Emotionally, it gives rather than taking like so much of Oval’s work after 94 Diskont did. Sure, this isn’t exactly pop music; there are too many strange arrangements of singing and CD noise to allow that. But it does attempt to bring Oval closer to humanity, to the concerns and thoughts of others. Plus, his defined approach to the source material is heartening. Perhaps he is human after all.