AIDAN BAKER & TIM HECKER
Fantasma Parastasie
ALIENCD81
Alien8 Recordings 2008
66 Tracks. 33mins48secs

This Fantasma Parastasie sees Canadian musicians Tim Hecker and Aidan Baker fuse together in a constantly shifting surge punctuated throughout with barks, growls and excited panting in the dark from Hecker’s seemingly endless store of electronic distortions and Baker’s fractured instrumentation, which ambles to the rhythm of madness, joy and sheer exultation.

Phantom On A Pedestal supplies the first rumble of revolutionary thunder, opening with an astonishing array of guttural squeaks, burps, groans, and gasps: what sounds like their very souls were straining to burst free. Continue Reading »

MUSICOLOGY / 2001
B12 Records Archive Vol. 1
B1212.1
B12 Records 2008
12 Tracks. 60mins04secs

FUTURE/PAST / ZEE# / AS ONE / MUSICOLOGY
B12 Records Archive Vol. 2
B1212.2
B12 Records 2008
11 Tracks. 60mins35secs

In recent years, there has been much archive digging amongst electronic artists, with the likes of The Orb, The Future Sound Of London, Monolake, Pole or 808 States all bringing out shiny remastered albums and previously unreleased or long unavailable tracks. Coming hot on the heels of their first new material in a decade, the British duo formed of Mike Golding and Steve Rutter are now undertaking a vast exhuming project by collecting the entire back catalogue of their B12 Records imprint on CD, most of it for the first time. Continue Reading »

French-Canadian artist Charles-Emile Beullac has been recording as Galerie Stratique for some time. Having made his first appearance on Worm Interface’s Alt Frequencies series, he went on to release his debut album, Nothing Down-To-Earth, on the now-defunct Law & Auder imprint in the early 00s. His warm and organic blend of electronic sounds was developed further on his sophomore effort, Horizzzons. His most recent album, Faux World, released recently, denotes a radical change of direction. Based around sound samples recorded during a series of improv sessions and with instruments collected during a trip to Indonesia, the new album was partly inspired by the random memories Beullac had of this trip as he fell victim of the side effects of anti-malaria tablets. Here, he talks about his musical education, from learning classical music to discovering electronic music through Jean-Michel Jarre, how changing direction became important and what the future has in store for him.

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BENGE
Twenty Systems
ECDB108
Expanding Records 2008
20 Tracks. 64mins25secs

‘Beautiful electronic music’. The motto of London-based Ben Edwards’s Expending Records has been his primary concern pretty much since he first appeared as Benge in the mid-nineties. His last couple of releases especially, Meme Tunes (2002) and I Am 9 (2004) were rich expanses of wonderfully lush and melodic electronica, harking back to a time where electronic music was made to sound like an alien form rather than reproduce organic sounds.

With his latest offering, Edwards celebrates the twenty years during which electronic sound synthesis rose from a radical and futuristic music form to become a very accessible mean of producing music. Continue Reading »

MICHNA
Magic Monday
GI73
Ghostly International 2008
12 Tracks. 47mins50secs

Adrian Michna spend part of his early years in New York, but it is his move to Miami and the party spirit that can be found there that fuelled his need to make music. Having cut his teeth as a DJ, Michna’s first noticeable foray into electronic music was as part of Secret Frequency Crew, who released the splendid Forest Of The Echo Downs four years ago.

Having now landed a place alongside the likes of Matthew Dear, Kiln and School Of Seven Bells on the eclectic Ghostly imprint, Michna delivers his first slice of solo goodness, splattered all over the forty-eight minutes of Magic Monday. Continue Reading »

TUJIKO NORIKO, LAWRENCE ENGLISH & JOHN CHANTLER
U
RM435
Room40 2008
08 Tracks. 38mins57secs

Room 40 captain Lawrence English, musician John Chantler, and chanteuse Tujiko Noriko tumble together and tug apart over the course of U, inexhaustibly stitching the strong physicality of melodic lines to acoustic nuance, whilst crisp, agile, insistent digital tattoos envelop them and insinuate into every interstice.

Far from the jerky, skewed cut-ups of some of Noriko’s earlier work, U develops a judicious restraint to create a space for listening.  The album, though hardly esoteric, and sometimes lacking the edge of discovery honed by a confidently individualized voice, is thus easy to get lost in. Continue Reading »