OBERMAN KNOCKS
Beatcroff Slabs
AP004
Aperture Records 2012
16 Tracks. 68mins40secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: CD

Oberman Knocks is the project of London-based musician Nigel Truswell. Although he relocated to London in the late eighties, Truswell’s work as Oberman Knocks owes much to the rich musical heritage of his birthplace, Sheffield, home of Cabaret Voltaire, Human League, Heaven 17, ABC to Pulp, Warp or The Black Dog, who still operate from there today, to name but a few. Following a chance encounter with Andrea Parker via Mira Calix’s Chantal Passamonte, Truswell released his debut album, 13th Smallest, on Parker’s burgeoning new imprint, Aperture, three years ago. Dark, intricate and post industrial, the album was an incredibly intense journey through dystopian landscapes.

Three years on, the intensity has increased drastically. Continue Reading »

KONX-OM-PAX
Regional Surrealism
ZIQ323
Planet Mu 2012
14 Tracks. 46mins30secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP

Glaswegian Tom Scholefield is pretty well acquainted with the music industry, having, in recent years, directed videos for Martyn, Kuedo, Lone and fellow Scotts Hudson Mohawke, Rustie or Mogwai, and produced artwork for Oneothrix Point Never or King Midas Sound. A side of his creative mind that’s so far remained under wrap is his music production, but this is about to change with the release of his debut album on Planet Mu. Regional Surrealism follows a handful of EPs published on Scholefield’s own imprint, Display Copy, in the last couple of years.

Scholefield’s music is somewhat odd, wonderful and highly individual. Continue Reading »

PJUSK
Tele
GM013
Glacial Movements 2012
09 Tracks. 50mins50secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

After two releases for 12K, Norwegian ambient duo Pjusk have moved to Italian isolationist imprint Glacial Movements for their latest sonic excursion. Steered by Rune Sagevik and Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik, both hailing from a small village on the West coast of Norway, Pjusk find the inspiration for their work in the long and harsh Nordic winters and in the nature that surrounds them. The pair are said to work in isolation, using a cabin high up in the mountains to record, a far cry from their earlier incarnation as techno artists. The pair met in the early nineties and have been involved with a number of projects since, together or separately, with releases on labels such as Beatservice or Origo Sound amongst others.

Pjusk’s fascination for the vast landscapes and wild nature of their native country often transpires through their work by the use of field recordings, although it never represents the bulk of their compositions by any means. Continue Reading »

Three years ago, the first album on Andrea Parker’s new venture, Aperture Records was published. The work of Sheffield-born Nigel Truswell, released under the enigmatic name of Oberman Knocks, 13th Smallest was a particularly dense and abstract electronic record, sounding somewhat like a malfunctioning machine. With his second album ready to be released, once again on Aperture, we caught up with the man to talk about his formative years, rubbing shoulders with Autechre, Mira Calix and Andrea Parker, learning to get to grip about the technology he uses and the prospects of a collaboration which may take him onto a very different path. Continue Reading »

WIL BOLTON
A Name That Hides Her
HB41
Hibernate Recordings 2012
06 Tracks. 37mins23secs

Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Wil Bolton is one half of the team behind the excellent Boltfish Recordings, but he is perhaps best known as Cheju, his solo project, which has seen him release music on Percussion Lab, U-Cover, Smallfish, Static Caravan or Boltfish. He has also an ongoing music project with Murray Fisher, the other half of Boltfish, as Biotron Shelf, and has published an album with Mark Streatfield (Zainetica) under the name Anzio Green back in 2008 on now defunct Japanese imprint Symbolic Interaction. Moving away from the crisp electronics and beats of Cheju and venturing into more atmospheric and ethereal territories, Bolton has, in the last two years, published a number of records under his own name on Hibernate, Time Released Sound and Cathedral Transmission. Continue Reading »

DELTA FUNKTIONEN
Traces
93DSR
Delsin Records 2012
09 Tracks. 60mins06secs

 Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD  US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Music like it used to be back in the day. This could be the subtitle of this slice of classic techno from Dutchman Niels Luinenburg, who has been recording as Delta Funktionen since 1998. Following a string of EPs for Delsin’s sister label Ann Aimee, Luinenburg now delivers his debut album for Amsterdam-based Delsin, and it is a pretty polished affair.

Concentrated slices of hypnotic minimal techno, Luinenburg’s EPs, released over the course of the last four years, have resolutely been aimed at clubs, but with Traces, the Dutchman broadens his scope quite considerably as he steps back from the dance floor to investigate more subtle electronic genres. Continue Reading »

MÚM
Early Birds: (A Compilation Of Early Recordings, Rare Music And Forgotten Songs From 1998-2000 Or Thereabouts)
Mm116
Morr Music 2012
15 Tracks. 72mins39secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Icelandic electronic folksters múm have been pretty quiet since the release of their last album, Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know (2009) and the end of the tour that followed a year later. Despite the recent announcement that the band has been working on the score for Jack & Diane, a film due out later on in the year, which is said to feature a collaboration bwtween the Icelandic formation and Kylie Minogue, the appearance of a compilation, published on Morr Music, the band’s original label, to which they returned with Sing Along… can easily be taken as a stop gap between projects. This said, Early Birds collects a number of rare and previously unpublished material recorded between 1998 and 2001, at a time when the band consisted essentially of Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason.

Over the years, múm have released music on Morr, TNT Entertainment and Fat-Cat, and have morphed from a primarily electronic duo in the early days to a quartet with the addition of twin sisters Gyða and Kristin Anna Valtýsdóttir and a collective of musicians and singers for Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy (2007)  and Sing Along… (2009), following the successive departures of the Valtýsdóttir sisters. Continue Reading »

LIGHTS OUT ASIA
Hy-Brasil
MD200
n5MD 2012
12 Tracks. 70mins59secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

Another Atlantis, located somewhere west of Ireland in the Atlantic Ocean, Hy-Brasil is a mythical island, which is said to appear, briefly, on the horizon every seven years, before being submerged again. It is thought that Brasil was named after this lost land, and the sliced blue circle at the centre of its flag is said to be a close representation of how the island was depicted on early maps.

Hy-Brasil is also the title of Lights Out Asia’s latest album, their fifth since 2003 and their fourth for Californian imprint n5MD. Continue Reading »

FIRE! with OREN AMBARCHI
In The Mouth – A Hand
RCD2130
Rune Grammofon 2012
04 Tracks. 68mins37secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP

A few weeks after the release of their collaborative effort with Jim O’Rourke, Swedish power trio Fire! (Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werlin) teamed up with Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi for a short run of UK dates. Recorded in London following two nights at the Vortex, In The Mouth – A Hand capitalises on the quartet’s live performances by attempting to capture the raw energy infusing their blend of free jazz, rock and kosmische.

Like O’Rourke before him, Ambarchi assumes full membership alongside the trio’s core players and drizzles guitar textures throughout this entire record Continue Reading »

BOL/WESTRHUS/SNAH
Numb, Number
GIGA006
Gigafon 2012
07 Tracks. 47mins36secs

Amazon: DLD US: DLD iTunes: DLD

The mercurial affair that is Numb, Number results directly of its many parts, bringing together BOL, an improv trio formed of vocalist Tone Ã…se, keyboardist StÃ¥le Storløkken, a regular with Supersilent, Elephant9 or Humcrush alongside Thomas Strønen, and drummer and percussionist Tor Haugerud, with guitarists Hans Magnus ‘Snah’ Ryan, known as one half of Motorpsycho, and Stian Westrhus, whose credentials include Puma, Bladed or Monolithic and a couple of solo releases for Rune Grammofon and its sister vinyl imprint The Last Record Company, and whose latest project, a collaboration with Norwegian vocalist extraordinaire Sidsel Endresen has just been issued by Rune Grammofon. Continue Reading »

KYLE BOBBY DUNN
Bring Me The Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn
LP049
Low Point 2012
15 Tracks. 121mins45secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD  US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Even to Kyle Bobby Dunn’s standards, Bring Me The Head Of… is a hugely austere introspective collection of soothing textural pieces. Recorded between his native Canada and Brooklyn over the course of several years, this double album follows A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn, also published on Low Point two years ago, which gathered rare and long unavailable material onto two discs, and last year’s excellent vinyl-only Ways Of Meaning (Desire Path).

A nudge over the two hour mark, Bring Me The Head is, like its predecessors, composed entirely of vast sprawling atmospheric compositions in between which slightly more concise pieces are inserted. Continue Reading »

TALVIHORROS / DAMIAN VALLES
Monuments And Ruins
TEXTURA003
Textura 2012
03 Tracks. 48mins18secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

Delivering on average one album every couple of years has allowed Textura to be extremely selective in their choices. Following on from the excellent Kubla Khan collection (2008), which collected a handful of songs by The Retail Sector, Ryan Francesconi, Alexander Turnquist and orchestramaxfieldparrish, inspired by the nineteenth century poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan, Or A Vision In A Dream. A Fragment, and the equally delightful, if somewhat sparse, album by Canadian duo Mains De Givre, Esther Marie (2010), Textura got in touch with London-based experimental guitarist Ben Chatwin, who records as Talvihorros, and Canadian ambient and drone artist Damian Valles, and asked them whether they would consider collaborating on a split release. The result is almost fifty minutes of atmospheric experimentation split almost equally between Chatwin’s two part piece From Within A Hollow Body and Valles’s Hollow Earth Theory.

Whist the two evolve in slightly different spheres, their respective sound worlds have much in common and complement each other rather splendidly here. Continue Reading »