themilkman on Apr 25th 2012 01:05 am
MONTY ADKINS
Four Shibusa
AB40
Audiobulb Records 2012
04 Tracks. 43mins22secs
Over the course of his career, which spans over nigh on twenty years, British composer and sound artist Monty Adkins has progressively stripped down his sonic spaces to now work with an extremely restricted palette from which he draws deeply atmospheric minimal compositions. His work has led him to create music for art installations and answer commissions from choreographer Wayne McGregor, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival or the prestigious INA-GRM in Paris. He has also collaborated with a vast number of artists, including AGF, Mira Calix, Vladislav Delay, Tim Hecker, Robin Rimbaud or Christian Fennesz, and has released five solo albums.
Four Shibusa is the result of a year-long collaboration with long-term friend and visual artist Pip Dickens, based on the Japanese principles of ‘shibusa’, which focuses on simple, beautiful aesthetic in everyday objects. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 23rd 2012 09:48 pm
JASON LANOX
Burning Every Bridge That I Cross To Find Some Beautiful Place To Get Lost
HENK001
Henk Recordings 2012
08 Tracks. 43mins36secs
Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM
A tidy helping of urban noises, a short blast of orchestral synthesis, a moody ambient drone … It is quite hard to guess exactly where Jason Lanox is heading to from the first minute and a half of his debut album, but as soon as the sleek groove which fuels the second track kicks in, everything falls into place rather nicely. Deep, soulful and extremely smooth, Burning Every Bridge… is something of a grower, its lush cinematic techno and ambient hinting a much wider spaces than the confines of nightclubs.
So far, Lanox has released a couple of EPs on Dutch imprint Bangbang!, and is now finding himself with the daunting prospect of inaugurating the newly formed Henk Recordings. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 19th 2012 01:25 am
NUDE ON SAND
Nude On Sand
SOFA537
SOFAMUSIC 2012
07 Tracks. 31mins45secs
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM
Jenny Hval’s songs are incredibly raw and visceral affairs in which she exposes her every emotion, as beautiful or disturbing as it is. On Viscera, the album she published last year on Rune Grammofon, she took this so far as to draw an extremely astute and crude picture of the human body and exhibit an incredibly vast array of bodily functions, hers and that of others, woven into wonderful miniature pop songs. One of her companions on that journey was guitarist Håvard Volden, with whom she has teamed up to form Nude On Sand. With two guitars and one voice, they present a less polished version of Hval’s work. Here more than on any of her previous projects, Hval is left utterly exposed and vulnerable as a vocalist, but, for anyone who has seen her perform live, it is a position she thrives on and thoroughly relishes.
Hval’s lyrics are as disconcertingly honest and surreal as on Viscera; her choice of words and the way she assembles them into penetrating stories, which at once make no sense yet are exceedingly meaningful, is exacerbated by the extreme minimalism of the instrumentation supporting them. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 18th 2012 01:31 am
THE A
Z
SMON5CDR
Imaginary Nonexistent Records 2012
11 Tracks. 35mins18secs
iTunes: DLD
Who, or what, is The A is a closely guarded secret. The very few clues provided on the Imaginary Nonexistent Records website, where the album is available to download for free, tell that The A is a HE, that he lives in Madrid, that he mixes ‘field recordings, graphic design and photography to create subconscious dream music’. Recording under one of the most un-Google friendly names around (try searching for The A: Z and see where this may take you) could be Joan Malé, who set up Imaginary Nonexistent Records to release the music he collects as Monoceros, or one of his regular pals, and listening to Z provides no further clues to the real identity of the musician who declares on the label’s site to want listeners to come to his music without preconceptions.
Whatever these preconceptions may have been, Z is in itself an intriguing record. Minimal, yet complex and intricate, it is a somewhat ambitious collection of broken electronica and dense sonic experimentations, built in part from a seemingly vast and varied pool of field recordings and processed into pieces which call upon fuzzy reference points. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 17th 2012 01:35 am
STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
From Beyond Love
STAUBGOLDDIGITAL17/STAUBGOLDANALOG6
Staubgold 2012
05 Tracks. 42mins27secs
Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM
Strings Of Consciousness is a loose collective in more than one way. Formed around the nucleus of Philippe Petit and Hervé Vincenti, this free-flowing ensemble has seen a considerable number of contributors coming and going through their unstoppable revolving doors, which perhaps accounts for the vast scope covered by their music, which brings together avant-rock, jazz, experimentations, noise and pretty much anything worth any attention in between.
Although Strings Of Consciousness have released a collection of remixes and a collaboration with Angel, the project of former Pan Sonic Ilpo Vaisänen, Schneider TM’s Dirk Dresselhaus and Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, in between, From Beyond Love is the second in a trilogy of releases started with Our Moon Is Full five years ago. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 16th 2012 10:14 pm
Finnish musician Oli Aarni first appeared a couple of years ago as Ous Mal on Australian imprint Preservation, but after just one album, he decided to pull the plug on the project and start anew. His new album, once again published on Preservation, was released as Nuojuva, and while it shares a certain feel for ghostly aesthetics with some of his compatriots’ work, his music is undoubtedly personal. Here, he discusses the reasons behind his change of name, why he keeps vocals to rather enigmatic textures, and how he feels about the Finnish music scene.  Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 13th 2012 01:29 am
CLARO INTELECTO
Reform Club
92DSR
Delsin Records 2012
09 Tracks. 52mins55secs
Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP
Claro Intelecto’s Mark Stewart is quite an elusive figure of the British techno scene, but, in the space of nearly ten years, he has built a solid reputation amongst his peers through a steady flow of releases, first for the utterly excellent and sorely missed AI Records, then more recently on Manchester’s Modern Love, for which he notably delivered five critically acclaimed EPs, The Warehouse Sessions Vol. 1-5, which were later collected on a CD. His first album, Neurofibro (2004), showcased his taste for abstract electronica and Detroit techno, but with following releases he focused more solely on the strong blend of elegant techno which infused part of his debut, resulting in his second opus, Metanarrative (2008). Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 12th 2012 01:23 am
EIVIND OPSVIK
Overseas IV
LLCD011
Loyal Label 2012
10 Tracks. 50mins30secs
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD
Norwegian-born bass player Eivind Opsvik has spent the last decade living and working in New York where he has been a near-permanent fixture on the local jazz circuit. During that time, he has recorded three albums with guitarist Aaron Jennings, published on NCM, Rune Grammofon and Opsvik’s own Loyal Label imprint, and has regularly played with various formations, but it is with Overseas, the ensemble he set up ten years ago and with whom he has released three albums so far, that he is perhaps best know. Overseas comprises Opsvik (double bass), Jacob Sacks (piano, organ), Tony Malaby (saxophone), Kenny Wollesen (drums, percussions), with the recent addition of guitarist Brandon Seabrook.
For their first outing as a quintet, Overseas are in resolutely inquisitive mood. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 11th 2012 01:19 am
COPPE’ + NIKAKOI
Rays
Mango & Sweet Rice 2012
13 Tracks. 61mins01secs
Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD
Never one to rest on her laurels, the self-professed ‘legendary godmother of Japanese electronica’ Coppe’ continues on her own unique journey, this time with Georgian electronic Nikakoi with whom she teams up for the entirety of this latest album. Coppe’ has made a habit of confronting her sonic universe with that of countless musicians and sound artists from all over the world, from the famous (Plaid, DJ Vadim, Atomâ„¢) to the totally unknown, often bringing them together on a single album. Rarely has she taken a collaboration over a whole album; in fact, the last time it happened was back in 2002 with Mercury, which she recorded with The Program, and Papa, My Buddha with long term friend Ryan Breen. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 4th 2012 01:26 am
DEAN BLUNT & INGA COPELAND
Black Is Beautiful
HDB012
Hyperdub Records 2012
15 Tracks. 39mins16secs
Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD
Having so far operated mainly as Hype Williams, a slightly enigmatic outfit which as spurted three odd and oblique albums on Carnivals, De Stijl and Hippos In Tanks in less than two years, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland are now stepping out as themselves (if these are indeed their real identities) for their debut release on Hyperdub. But, apart for the name change, nothing has really changed for the pair. Black Is Beautiful is equally as convoluted, obsessive, schizophrenic and dreamy as its predecessors, and it is all the better for it.
Sounding like something half way between an amateurish mixtape and an odd lab experiment, Black Is Beautiful is pretty impossible to pigeonhole, its influences reaching far and wide, with no particular strand taking any precedence over any other at any point. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 3rd 2012 01:27 am
MIRT
Artificial Field Recordings
CAT8
Cat Sun 2012
07 Tracks. 48mins31secs
A musician, he is member of experimental pop out Brasil And The Gallowbrothers Band, graphic designer and magazine editor, Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Mirt also heads Polish imprint Cat Sun and helps run parent label Monotype Records. With his solo project, soberly named Mirt, he has been experimenting with acoustic and electric instrumentation and electronic processing for over a decade, releasing his debut album, Rain In City Of Myrrh And Forget-Me-Not back in 2001, and he has since published a further four records, two for Cat Sun and two for Monotype.
Field recordings have always been an integral part of Mirt’s solo work, and this album, his sixth, is no exception, but his approach is slightly different here as he relies on electronics to create similar textures to those he would ordinarily collect in his surroundings and process into his music. Continue Reading »
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themilkman on Apr 2nd 2012 01:42 am
CEZARY GAPIK
The Sum Of Disappearing Sound
KR008
Karlrecords 2012
04 Tracks. 54mins44secs
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM
Although he started as a punk activist in his native Poland in the early eighties, at a time when the country was facing the first onslaughts of the huge struggle to escape the grip of communism which would characterise the next few years, Cezary Gapik went on to widen his musical horizon greatly as he discovered Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Limited, and, later, the musical experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morten Feldman or La Monte Young. His own production, for the most part self-released, has been nothing short of prolific since 1999, but his official debut release came only last year on the excellent White Box Recordings with Contrast I, the first of three instalments planned for the label.
The Sum Of Disappearing Sound is quite an epic offering and is articulated around four atmospheric pieces clocking between eleven and sixteen minutes. Continue Reading »
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