VARIOUS ARTISTS
Physic Or Surgery
HPLL058
Highpoint Lowlife 2011
28 Tracks. 138mins42secs

Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

The statement is brutal: HPLL058 Physic Or Surgery – The Final Release. In these days where music has become a commodity with often very little value, the demise of a record label, especially one with such an excellent track record as that of Highpoint Lowlife, is a severe blow. Over a period of ten years, the label spearheaded by Thorsten Sideb0ard has consistently found itself at the forefront of contemporary underground electronic music in its many forms, and occasionally beyond, and provided a steady home or temporary shelter for artists as diverse as Fisk Industries, Erstlaub, Si-Cut.db, Bovaflux, , Marshall Watson, 10-20, Dalglish, Like A Stuntman and the Marcia Blaine School For Girls umbrella of projects, including The Village Orchestra and Production Unit.

As Sideb0ard is turning his attention to writing and drawing comics (Physic Or Surgery is also the title of a comic available to download from the HPLL website), he has compiled an impressive twenty-eight track mastodon compilation which isn’t quite a simple retrospective trying to cram ten years in just over two hours but which instead offers a wealth of previously unreleased material from a big slice of the label’s entire roster. Expectedly, the result is incredibly varied, bringing together lush ambient textures, oppressive atmospherics, dense abstract experimentations, elegant techno, hip-hop-infused grooves, urban flavours or playful electro under one banner.

Picking up highlights is here pretty pointless, so wide is the scope of this compilation, yet some undeniably deserve particular mentions, if only because they crystalize, in their own way, HPPL’s overall visionary approach. Depakote, with the psychedelic Casnoc Is Dead, and Fisk Industries with the more urgent Death Is The Final Step, adopt hip-hop-infused grooves to very different effects, while Gravious’s Ghostly Steps and Spatial’s Checks Out are fueled with pulsating dubsteb flavours, the former wrapped in lush soundscapes, the latter presented in much more minimal form. Beats are present on a majority of the pieces collected here, and come in all shades and forms, but techno seems to dominate at least part of the selection, from the fluid (Marshall Watson’s Liquid Solid) and dubbey (randomNumber’s K Revisited, Twerk’s Have 10, Need 20) to the motorik (10-20’s Bloomback, Marcia Blaine’s Loopy Dobber), and dreamy (TVO’s I’m Everything That Never Happened To You). Erik XVI carves a rather magnificent techno/electro hybrid with When Particles Collide, while Hot City’s No Matter What I Do is a fun and playful soul-infused piece which is not without recalling some of Nightmares On Wax’s early experiments.

When the mood settles for cooler tones, the harvest is as rich, from Bovaflux’s rather sumptuous Temazapam or Pausal’s peaceful and luxurious Afar to Erstlaub’s droney Team Handed We Go, Into The Night, while Friends Of The Jitney’s haunting Leafcutter John remix of Good Mourning recalls the bleak atmospheres of This Mortal Coil’s Filigree And Shadow. On a different level, the claustrophobic textures and heavy groove of Dalglish’s Mordsun and Sideb0ard’s Grind seem to find an unlikely echo in the greasy electro of Kenny Crunk’s Baxter Bad Yin and the deconstructed abstraction of Calika’s Diagonal B.

In the space of ten years and just under sixty releases, Highpoint Lowlife has been one of the most consistent imprints around, and its demise is likely to be felt for some time, yet Thorsten Sideb0ard leaves behind him an substantial catalogue and this last blast of life, which should be appreciated with absolutely no moderation. Farewell Highpoint Lowlife, and thank you for the music.

4.8/5

Highpoint Lowlife
Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again
HPLL037
Highpoint Lowlife 2009
01 Track. 58mins36secs

Buy: MP3

Scotland has long been a fertile ground for electronic music, and one of the country’s best exports is undoubtedly the Marcia Blaine School For Girls collective, whose three members, Bryan Kerr, David Donnolly and Ruaridh Law, have released music on labels such as Benbecula, Unlabel, Static Caravan or Metal-On-Metal, either collectively or individually, for over ten years. It is however on London-based Highpoint Lowlife that the trio have found their natural home, first producing the excellent Some Paths Lead Back Again project four years ago, then their album Halfway Into The Woods two years ago. It is also on Highpoint Lowlife that Ruaridh Law’s seminal solo effort Et In Arcadia Ego, as The Village Orchestra, was published, again in 2005.

While he has since released music on other imprints, Law returns to HPLL for his latest effort. Released as a digital album, with just one hundred CDR copies produced, I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again contains just one hour-long ambient piece, which slowly progresses through various sequences, some entirely beat-less and atmospheric, others propelled by dubbey beats, with occasional recurring events, most notably a ringing phone and a spooky reversed sample of Kristin Hersh and Michael Stipe’s Your Ghost (hint).

While I Can Hear… shares with Et In Arcadia Ego a taste for lush and evocative soundscapes and a clear penchant for atmospheric settings and textures, this new work, due in part to its nature, is a much more sustained and demanding project, with the many shades of its predecessor combined into one free-flowing narrative. This piece is structured in such a way that it goes through many variations, from the environmental noises and graceful calm of the opening sequence to the rougher soundscapes materialising a bit later into the piece to the beautiful rhythmic motifs heard almost half an hour in, surprisingly evocative of Biosphere at times, and the sweeping cinematic drapes which follow, each pushing the overall piece in a new dimension, while retaining a constant textural flow all the way through. It rapidly becomes almost impossible not to loose oneself in the piece as Law offers very few other indicators on the way than that Kristin Hersh sample. The mind is therefore left to wander from one sonic setting to the next, subjected to various flux of energy and density without even consciously moving ahead, as if caught in a state of dream.

With this beautiful work, Ruaridh Law has developed the lush and rich textures of Et In Arcadia Ego into a wonderful sonic tale, with diverse elements woven together into a hypnotic soundtrack. I Can Hear The Sirrens Singing Again is a truly accomplished piece of work which confirms, if necessary, Law as one of the most interesting ambient artists to have emerged from Scotland in recent years.

4.7/5

The Village Orchestra | Highpoint Lowlife
Buy: MP3

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Magnetism, That Electricity
HPLL026
Highpoint Lowlife 2008
12 Tracks. 74mins46secs

For some time now, the excellent Highpoint Lowlife have refocused their outputs by publishing extremely limited hand crafted CDR editions, but the quality of the music released has in no way waned, as recent releases by Tigrics and Erstlaub have shown. Magnetism, That Electricity is the latest project initiated by label head Thorsten Sideb0ard, and follows the Analog For Architecture DVDR compilation released a year and a half ago. The project was devised primarily to be pressed on vinyl and released as a double EP, with four very different acts from the HPLL stable given the full run of a side each. Answering the call are atmospheric drone rockers Mandelbrot Set and electronic outfits Fisk Industries, The Village Orchestra and The Marcia Blaine School For Girls.

First in line are Mandelbrot Set, a trio set between ambient, drone rock and noise, whose debut album, All Our Actions Are Constantly Repeated, was released on HPLL in 2006. Here, they contribute four densely layered compositions, articulated into movements of an overall piece entitled Astronomy And Allied Science, which incorporate long guitar drones, treated distorted guitars and ethereal string work. There are echoes of My Bloody Valentines, Mogwai and, to a lesser extent, Godspeed You! Black Emperor in these pieces, but the trio’s work remains truly individual. The three first pieces are totally beat-less and evolve into one another without clear transition, moving from the gentle breeze of the opening composition into the much more intense circumvolutions of the following section and into the complex formations of the third part. It is only on the last piece that drums are introduced, bringing the pace up considerably for a short outburst of distortions before folding up.

The four contributions from Londoner Mat Ranson, who has, under the Fisk Industries banner, released two brilliant EPs on HPLL, which were compiled into an album which also featured two web-only EPs and released on Mush last year. Ranson has also provided the score for short films and is currently working on his debut album. His four offerings here showcase Ranson’s widescreen hip-hop infused blend of electronica, set into rich soundscapes providing dramatic backdrops for strong melodies. Blood, with its gritty and grinding electronics and heavy beat, is typical Fisk Industries, but with Gangu, Ranson moves into much darker and oppressive terrain. Everything here hints at desolate post industrial influences, and the mood doesn’t lift much on the following Rhetoric. Here though, Ranson applies hip-hop touches in a slightly more conventional fashion and ornates his moody groove and oppressive soundscapes with vocal samples. Only on Crowley does he tear the clouds that have been hanging over the previous tracks apart and reveal a much more tranquil and radiant series of soundscapes.

The solo project of Marcia Blaine member Ruaridh Law, The Village Orchestra is responsible for one of HPLL’s most sumptuous releases with his 2005 album Et In Arcadia Ego. For Magnetism, he supplies one epic twenty minute piece which develops from ambient drones sounding like stellar winds blowing over deserted landscapes into a much more sophisticated rhythmic section which allows Law to introduce melodic elements and develop a variety of moods throughout. With its warm soundscapes, melodic progressions and overall tone, The King Of All Tears is reminiscent of classic German electronic music of the mid-to-late seventies, bringing to mind the work of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze or Manuel Göttsching, and actually sets Law on a much more ambitious trajectory than previous outputs.

Last but not least is the full Marcia Blaine School For Girls crew, who collect three magnificent electronic compositions which rely on shimmering backdrops upon which Law casts gentle themes which develop all the way through each piece. The trio have released a number of seven inch singles and EPs on labels as diverse as Static Caravan, Metal-On-Metal and Dalriada before landing a semi-permanent home with HPLL. Their first release for the label was a compilation of Scottish electronica featuring some of the band’s work together with various side projects and contributions from like-minded friends. This was followed by a full length album, Halfway Into The Woods, last year. From the shimmering brushes of Pinar through to the surprisingly upfront and linear, yet strangely ethereal Bottle Stain via the intricate futuristic formations of The Ratio, the Marcia Blaine lads craft electronic music that is at once evocative, cinematic and dramatic and has very little equivalent.

Not quite a compilation but more than just a simple roster showcase, Magnetism, That Electricity demonstrates the wide angled approach of Highpoint Lowlife and its utterly modern vision. With only three hundred copies of this double EP pressed on vinyl and a hundred CDRs, this is yet again a released that should be snapped up before it’s gone for ever.

4.7/5

Mandelbrot Set | Fisk Industries | The Village Orchestra | The Marcia Blaine School For Girls
Buy: Highpoint Lowlife

THE MARCIA BLAINE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Halfway Into The Woods
HPLL024
Highpoint Lowlife 2007
11 Tracks. 61mins01secs

Scotland has been delivering some fine electronic acts with insistent regularity, from the beautifully melodic and innovative Boards Of Canada to some of the acts from the Benbecula stable. The Marcia Blaine School For Girls, a trio hailing from Glasgow, have released some very promising EPs on Static Caravan, Awkward Silence and Metal On Metal, since they first appeared in 1997, and the compilation of Scottish electronica they put together for Highpoint Lowlife in 2005, Some Paths Lead Back Again, which predominantly featured work from the collective and its satellite projects, as well as tracks from the likes of Izu or Chris Dooks, was a rather tasty appetizer.

In 2005, Highpoint Lowlife released the excellent debut album by Marcia Blaine member Ruaridh Law, under his Village Orchestra guise. Halfway Into The Woods shares with Law’s cut a flair for beautiful melodic themes wrapped in lush electronic soundscapes, layered over crisp rhythmic pattern. The Marcia Blaine crew however expand on the gentle psychedelic tones and create elegant shimmering pieces which appear to continuously blossom and morph. Right from the outset, the collective set the tone by progressively building The Secret Of The Mezzanine from an ethereal wave into an ever changing series of colourful sonic patterns. From there on, nothing comes to disturb the Marcia Blaine purpose as they progressively close the door on reality and unveil their fantastic dream world. All the way through, the tone alternates between moody pieces (Boris, Last Game Of Mercy, Pink Inside) and mesmerizing intricate compositions (Rude Mechanical, Last Game Of The Mercy, Qoelet). Elsewhere, MBSFG dip their feet into surprisingly pop territory when they incorporate vocals into their dense electronic structures on the effervescent Still and Yugo Or Iago.

On Milk And Honey, the trio swap light ethereal formations for darker, more chilling textures, concluding this album on a surprisingly unsettling and sombre note, yet, while the atmosphere becomes more oppressive, there is always in the distance a glimmer of light which guides the listener gently back to the real world.

As a teaser to this album, the band have made available a companion remix EP, free to download from the Highpoint Lowlife website, with contributions from Maps & Diagram, Izu, Dextro, Talve or Erstaub amongst others, each artist providing a different twist on the originals. While some choose to remain close to the Marcia Blaine sonic template, Izu, Erstaub, Dextro and Orphax turn the collective sound upside down and rampage freely through their delicate structures, throwing harsh electronics, electric guitars and isolationist forms against the trio’s graceful electronics.

With Halfway Into The Woods, The Marcia Blaine School For Girls finally deliver the fine collection of atmospheric electronica they have been promising for years. While the beautiful soundscapes and melodies deployed here will undoubtedly please those who fell in love with The Village Orchestra, the wider scope of this record, together with its consistency, is likely to gain the trio a whole new fan base.

Explore: The Marcia Blaine School For Girls | Highpoint Lowlife
Buy: CD