Living
Ornaments are an electronica duo comprising Netherlanders
Lars Meijer and Coen Polack. Their two releases under
consideration here are their own EP, Klonten
which clocks in at a little over twenty minutes in length
(blink and it’s gone) and their half of a split
LP.
Klonten is an interesting, if too-short release.
There seem to be a number of different tracks wriggling
around inside Chriettitulaer (this is a good
thing). There’s a reggae-ish dub spirit spiralling
in the background, a stuttering, mutating biscuit tin
drum and bass beat, abstract figures skating around
and from time to time an upbeat melody perambulating
throughout.
Diewertjeblok darts and fizzes along before
sloughing into a contemplative phase and running out
of steam. Shorter tracks alternate with longer tones.
The mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds is interesting;
particularly the melancholic piano and associated chimes
and strums on Henkmouwe. At times though there
is something of an apprentice tentativeness to this
EP. Some of the drum sounds appear a little pre-packaged
and disposable and it would be good to hear the duo
explore their ideas over longer periods of time, but
Klonten is a promising and interesting release.
On their part of the Narrominded Split LP release
(the other half contains tracks by Accelera Deck), Living
Ornaments present 11 tracks ranging between thirty-one
seconds and three-and-a-half minutes long. Oliespatten
navigates a number of different stages ranging from
up and down pacing to headlong dash. The shorter tracks
mix sudden, almost comic pianistic interruptions wrapped
round with electronic noise like poison ivy binding
a graveyard statue. There's a strong episodic and filmic
sense to the music.
At times the music resonates with the sound of celestial
bodies echoing down the light years, at other times
the sound of synthetic vegetation buffeted in high winds.
Crunchy, pummelling rhythms agitate and overlap with
each other. Kwalrups breaks up in free fall,
its signal lost in Geiger noise. There is a hint of
the deep space music of the mid-nineties (think of Pete
Namlook¹s collaborations with The
Higher Intelligence Agency), though the rhythmic
timbres and structures are entirely contemporary. I
don¹t know which of these releases came first,
but I wouldn’t hesitate to confirm that the Narrominded
release follows Klonten. The band’s sound
appears much more confidant, more detailed and more
solid and they seem to be pushing things a lot further.
Worth searching out.
Colin Buttimer
Narrominded Split LP Series #1 2/5
Klonten 4/5 |
