ROBERT LOGAN
Inscape
SLOCD010
Slowfoot 2009
12 Tracks. 68mins53secs

Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

Robert Logan first came to attention a couple of years ago when his debut album, Cognessence, was released on London-based imprint Slowfoot. An often dark, abstract and organic soundtrack, this record showed a surprising level of maturity and control.

While his music appears at first extremely electronic and textured, Logan’s roots are actually more diverse. Indeed, alongside Aphex Twin and Autechre, he also names seventies pioneering bands such as Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream, and modern classical composers such as Steve Reich or Arvo Pärt, as influences. His taste for ambitious soundscapes, gritty electronics and brooding atmospheres led him to compose the soundtrack for Alex Gibney’s documentary Taxi To The Darkside, a hard-hitting film on the torture practiced by the US in the middle east and in Guantanamo Bay, and provide textures and drum edits for Grace Jones’s most recent album. Continue Reading »

The rather discreet and, to most revellers it seemed, until then unknown, Village Underground, in London’s Shoreditch, welcomed a rather eclectic event, headlined by American experimental electronic duo Matmos and the London Contemporary Orchestra, with opening performances by electronic act Micromattic and pianist Sarah Nicholls, who, until recently, performed as Tilly Automatic.

Continue Reading »

JASPER TX
Singing Stones
FB010
Fang Bomb 2009
09 Tracks. 55mins26secs

Buy: CD

The prolific Dag Rosenqvist has been progressively developing his particular blend of dense and bleak treated guitar textures and refined the sound of his solo project, Jasper TX over the years. The Swede’s first album, I’ll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, was released in 2005 on Lampse, and since, Rosenqvist has published a number of records on Lidar, Kning Disk, Miasmah and Slaapwel, refining both his sound and approach with each new tome. The pace of releases has steadily increased in the last couple of years, and while SMGT is currently releasing Rosenqvist’s collaboration with Anduin, Swedish imprint Fang Bomb is bringing out his latest solo sonic excursion.

Following on from his last album, Black Sheep, published on Miasmah, and the Closet Ghosts EP on Fenêtre, Singing Stones sees Rosenqvist return once again to his widescreen cinematic soundscapes build around layers of treated acoustic and electric guitars and gentle electronics. Continue Reading »

PETER BRODERICK
Music For Falling From Trees
ERATP15
Erased Tapes 2009
07 Tracks. 28mins46secs

Buy: CD | MP3

In just over a year, Peter Broderick has gone from largely unknown to highly respected composer and musician. Beside publishing two albums last year, the classical-orientated Float, on Type, then Home, on Bella Union, on which he showcased his folk compositions, as well as an-all piano exercise, Docile, on Kning Disk, Broderick has been busy touring all over Europe and the US as part of Danish avant-folksters Efterklang.

His latest project sees him returning to modern classical composition. Music For Falling From Trees is a half hour piece written for a contemporary dance production created by London-based choreograph Adrienne Hart. Continue Reading »

REDCELL / B12 / STASIS
B12 Records Archive Vol. 5
B1212.5
B12 Records 2009
14 Tracks. 63mins11secs

B12
B12 Records Archive Vol. 6
B1212.6
B12 Records 2009
24 Tracks. 75mins04secs

REDCELL / B12
B12 Records Archive Vol. 7
B1212.7
B12 Records 2009
13 Tracks. 79mins09secs

Buy: Vol. 5 – CD | MP3 Vol. 6 – CD | MP3

In the last few months, B12 have been busy reissuing the entire catalogue of long-unavailable EPs released on their imprint in the early to mid nineties, throwing in a heft dose of previously unreleased material for good measure, all in sparkling remastered sound quality. This journey, spanning a mere five years, was collected on seven volumes and constitutes a vibrant document of the period.

The last three volumes in the B12 Archive series offer a slightly different view of the pair’s work. While Volume 5, like its predecessor, is still largely representative of Steve Rutter and Mike Golding’s early years, especially on sister tracks Interim and Outerim, or later, Freeflow, Point Of No Return or Questions For Vanmannam, there are clear signs that, by 1993, the band were in search of new paths to explore. Continue Reading »

AGF/DELAY
Symptoms
BPC193
BPicth Control 2009
12 Tracks. 56mins14secs

Buy/Stream: CD | MP3 | iTunes | Spotify

Four years on from their previous outing as an creative couple, Antye ‘AGF’ Greie and her life companion Sasu ‘Vadislav Delay’ Ripatti rekindled their collaborative project and serve another slice of angular space-age pop, where clean cut electronics and dub-infused moods form a warm and vibrant cocoon for AGF’s ice-cool breathy vocals and miniature tales of every day life.

The pair’s first collaborations were documented on Explode, an album released on AGF’s own imprint, and was rapidly followed with a second collaboration, this time between the pair and composer Craig Armstrong, as The Dolls. Since, both have been busy on various solo projects and productions jobs. Symptoms returns to the original AGF/Delay template and give it a new definition. Continue Reading »

BOXCUTTER
Arecibo Message
ZIQ225CD
Planet Mu 2009
13 Tracks. 49mins07secs

Buy: CD | LP |  iTunes

In the four years since he first burst onto the grime/dubstep scene, Barry Lynn as established Boxcutter as a force to be reckoned with, yet, in recent years, his sound has progressively become more eclectic and rounded, while still retaining much of the caustic streaks that got him noticed in the first place. Hailing from Lurgan, county Armagh in Northern Ireland, Lynn published a first EP on London-based Hotflush Records, one of the first imprints to heavily promote dubstep, in 2005, before moving to Planet Mu the following year. He has since delivered two albums under the Boxcutter banner, and a third one under his birth name, as well as contributed tracks for a number of compilations released by the label.

With his latest Boxcutter slice, Lynn continues to explore much wider sonic grounds and adapt his approach to fit with this expanded horizon. Continue Reading »

TREMOLO AUDIO
Visitas
MRCD009
Mil Records 2008
13 Tracks. 58mins24secs

Buy: MP3 | iTunes

Mexico may have had some had press recently, but its electronic scene has been prospering in recent years, with, most notably, the Nortec Collective and Murcof, establishing the country as one of the strongest calling ports for electronic music in Latin America. A member of Nortec himself when performing as Clorofila, Tijuana born and bred Jorge Verdin steps away from the shadow of the collective for his other project, Tremolo Audio, seeking inspiration from the music he listened to when growing up in the eighties. Naming influences ranging from Brian Eno to This Mortal Coil, and New Order to Durutti Column, the scope of the project can only be as vast as the cover of this album suggests.

Yet, Verdin has made an odd choice for his debut release as Tremolo Audio. During the recording of his album, he decided to send the unfinished tracks to a number of artists and producers around the globe, inviting them to interpret his work in progress. Continue Reading »

The Union Chapel, up in Islington, north London, played host to Nico Muhly’s pre-ATP performance this Friday evening, and as the billing suggested, the New Yorker had brought along a handful of friends, including young folk singer Sam Amidon, pianist Thomas Bartlett, who usually officiates under the name of Doveman, Icelandic vocalist Helgi Hrafn and Bedroom Community label head and Björk and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy collaborator Valgeir Sigurðsson.

In the two years since the release of his debut album, Speaks Volume, on Bedroom Community, Nico’s profile has risen greatly. His second album, Mothertongue, released last year, showcased his incredible range much more clearly. Beside his solo work, he’s also orchestrated music for people as diverse as Björk, Antony And The Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and, most recently, Grizzly Bear. Continue Reading »

A HAWK AND A HACKSAW
Délivrance
BAY64CD
The Leaf Label 2009
10 Tracks. 37mins39secs

Buy: CD | LP | MP3

From the origin of his project, former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes has taken A Hawk And A Hacksaw progressively further Eastward, settling for Romania with his third album, The Way The Wind Blows, three years ago, and the following mini album, recorded with the Hun Hangár Ensemble, a group of Hungarian folk musicians. A couple, and a duo since The Way The Wind Blows, when violinist Heather Trost officially joined, A Hawk And A Hacksaw made the jump from their native Albuquerque, New Mexico, to relocate to the Hungarian capital, Budapest, in 2007. The pair consequently toured extensively with the Hun Hangár Ensemble.

Recorded last year in Budapest, with contributions from the Hun Hangár Ensemble and many other local musicians, Délivrance is once again an engaging patchwork of swirling sounds and melodies. Continue Reading »

10-20
10-20
HPLL034
Highpoint Lowlife 2009
08 Tracks. 50mins26secs

Buy: iTunes

Hailing from Devon, in the South West corner of England, the mysteriously named 10-20 is a music producer who has just dropped something of a bombshell with his self-titled digital-only debut album, released on London-based Highpoint Lowlife. In just eight tracks, he sketches an intense, often oppressive, universe, cut from dark soundscapes and coarse electronics which are assembled into complex patterns and applied over broken urban beats. These seem as far removed from the tranquil countryside and wild coastal nature of Devon, anchored instead in some suffocating industrial wasteland, where decay and rust are common currency. Continue Reading »

CHRISTOPHE BAILLEAU
Air Resort
SOUND001
Soundscaping Records 2008
07 Tracks. 52mins59secs

Having been a member of various rock formations in the nineties, French-born, Belgium-based multimedia artist Christophe Bailleau began releasing music under his own name in 2003, and has since, collaborated with artists as diverse as Sebastien Roux, Won or Neal Williams. Beside his musical activities, he also directs short films and creates audiovisual installations for a wide range of events and locations.

The inaugural release from Norwegian imprint Soundscaping Records, Air Resort, Bailleau’s fourth solo album, is a beautiful collection of atmospheric music where sounds form in exquisite fluid sequences, each totally self-contained, yet is connected, often in subtle way, to the others, ensuring a consistent mood throughout the seven tracks presented here. Continue Reading »