VARIOUS ARTISTS: SMM: Context (Ghostly International)

themilkman on Mar 25th 2011 01:49 am

Various Artists: SMM: Context

VARIOUS ARTISTS
SMM: Context
GI133
Ghostly International 2011
11 Tracks. 64mins52secs

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

Anchored in Ann Arbor, a stone throw away from the Mecca of techno, Detroit, Ghostly International has, in the twelve years it has been operating, continuously ventured in and out of the dance culture and reached out into pop, ambient, hip-hop or experimental works by expanding its roster to include the likes of Schools Of Seven Bells, Syntaks, Tycho, Lusine, Dabrye, The Sight Below, Twine or Christopher Willits. While still very much an enigmatic acronym, the term SMM was apparently coined in 2004 by Ghostly to define the then emerging breed of music mixing classical forms with contemporary ambient electronica, a genre which has since been the forte of Miasmah in Norway, and less exclusively, Type in the UK.

The first in a new yearly compilation series from Ghostly, SMM: Context gathers a number of familiar names and attempts to chart a genre which boundaries are, almost by definition, somewhat hazy. Continue Reading »

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AIDAN BAKER & TIM HECKER: Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8 Recordings)

Max Schaefer on Nov 13th 2008 10:49 pm

Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker: Fantasma Parastasie

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 »

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