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I've been posting my reviews on last.fm for quiet some time now. I love going back to my original ramblings and then dusting off the albums that got me excited years ago... This is essentially the point. Besides my interviews and features, Headphone Commute Reviews are meant to be an archive of my favorite releases as well as recommendations for you. I do not have time to write negative words, so here's another batch of my latest finds that I hope will make it onto your rotations list. A lot of goodies in here for you. Not to mention another Record Label Profile. This month it's an in-depth interview with Evan Bartholomew of Somnia. Read Label Profile: Somnia only on reviews.headphonecommute.com. Here are 16 reviews and flashbacks, with many featuring my mini interview feature I call "Two and a Half Questions", so be sure to hit that. As usual, I would appreciate a comment or two, and would love it if you could Subscribe to RSS Feed.

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The Refractors - 8 Year Sleep (Dynamophone)

I first discovered The Refractors through their hand packaged and physically painted copy of All Colors Run EP, which they self released in 2008 and were kind enough to send over. I say "discovered" not because I want to take any credit for finding them before they got picked up by San Francisco based Dynamophone Records, but because stumbling upon this duo was a real pleasure, as it is whenever one uncovers a previously unheard artist. My initial reaction to the sound is worth repeating once again, and so I quote my previous review: The Refractors are Joseph and Kayline Martinez of Pacifica, California, who turn running colors, abandoned sounds, and loose threads back into art. The sixteen minute All Colors Run EP is a collection of vignettes and gentle sketches feeding analog instruments and field recordings into cold machines. The sound is described by the artists as "vegetation coming up through the cracks of man-made structures." On this debut full length album, 8 Year Sleep, The Refractors catalog their musical journal entries beginning with the year 2001. Eight years, eight memories, eight movements. Each track represents a collection of dreams, grievances and flashbacks, woven with the accompanied instruments, field recordings, and silence. With a nod towards political events taking place in the last eight years of American history (the first track, for example, is titled A Fall Disguised as a Rise), the duo captures emotions with a surreal juxtaposition of abandoned fragments. The album is made up of dying dusty microphones, acoustic attic guitars, kitchen drawer percussion, splattering water, scratched voices, and lost pieces of home. It is also worthwhile to mention that the tracks Lull and Inherit include contributions from a guitarist Clayton McEvoy, who has been recently signed to another favorite label of mine, Hidden Shoal. Watch for his upcoming release under the alias of Sleeping Me titled Cradlesongs (Hidden Shoal, 2009) in May. This is a great catch for Dynamophone Records, who snatched the Refractors and released this album in their Parcel Series - a limited edition 3" CDr, packaged in a beautiful compact box, with artwork by Eric Lacombe. Previous releases in the Parcel Series include The Lullaby League's Filia Melusine, Fjordne's Last 3 Days of Time, and A Lily's I Dress my Ankles in God's Sweetest Words, among the many others. And one more thing! The Refractors' 8 Year Sleep will be the first release on Dynamophone's new Lilian Series format, which will be released on a tiny 1G USB flash drive held in a slide-top tin with a tiny neodyne magnet. How cool is that? This version will come with six extended tracks, images, lyrics and additional information behind each track, like this little fact about Farewell Sister: "She was assassinated two months after retuning to Pakistan from exile". A great collector's item breathing life into the meaning behind a musical album as a concept.

Two and a Half Questions with The Refractors

http://www.myspace.com/therefractors | http://www.dynamophone.com

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VA - Sound of Slow Flow Vol. 1 (Slow Flow)

The shadows recede into their coldness. She shows up this morning. With her light breeze and the blue skies, Spring begins another cycle. The light synthetic chirping in my headphones joins that of the birds. And they all sing. On the train, I read Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance (1994). The atmospheric swells and the ambient drones are the perfect soundtrack to the novel. All the more appropriate, since this disc arrived from Japan. On this compilation, Sounds of Slow Flow Vol 1, ten various artists contribute tracks that express their image of a "slow flow". Each is delicate and unique in its own way, but this conceptual theme joins the album together unlike any other scattered sampler. With this first release for Sapporo, Hakkaido-based Slow Flow Records, the label enters the minimal ambient scene with an eclectic roster of artists. This ethereal movement in between space and stillness is collectively comprised of compositions by Pawn, Celer, Ryonkt, Cloudburst, Elian, Segue, Porzellan, Glenn Ryszko, Entia Non, and Ian Hawgood. One of the familiar names on this bliss saturated collection is Celer, a husband and wife duo, with a deep discography, and the second release for this label, Cursory Asperses (Slow Flow, 2008). Compiled by Ryo Nakata (Ryonkt), the 70+ minute journey will take you through textures and tones designed to complement the impossibly persistent soundtrack of the daily life. Current Slow Flow releases include the above mentioned album by Celer, an album by Misound, Stanze di te, and an upcoming album by Jordan Sauer (Segue), Into the fall. Recommended if you prefer meditative sound over silence during any activity, except useless rambling thoughts. Filed under ambient and experimental releases, along with titles from 12k, Room40, Dragon's Eye, and Spekk. Looking forward to all future releases.

http://www.myspace.com/slowflowryo | http://www.slowflowrec.web.fc2.com

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Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster-Noton)

Alva Noto returns with a second installment in his five-part planned Xerrox series. On this follow up to Xerrox Vol. 1 (Raster-Noton, 2007), Carsten Nicolai turns up the volume in static electricity working with the concept of copying sounds. A copy of a copy of a copy in digital format may be flawless, so what does Nicolai do? For this feat, Nicolai along with Christoph Brünggel created a "sample transformer". This software manipulation device downsamples, chops and fragments the original source, until it no longer resembles itself, becoming an error prone original, becoming a copy corrupted with noise, becoming a newly created entity in itself. Here's Nicolai, giving us a little more color on the second volume on the label's website: "xerrox vol. 2 undertakes an intense journey and affords the luxury to take its time. while xerrox vol. 1 (r-n 78) referred to the ‘old world’ with its tradition deeply rooted in classical music, xerrox vol. 2 tries to access a ‘new world’. it works with samples that have been gathered and developed in the usa – the so-called ‘new world’ – where the album also has almost completely been recorded. the dramatic and dynamic approach of xerrox vol. 1 on vol. 2 has been replaced by a structural density. instead of working with individual musical entities the new album rather develops an overall, linear aesthetic that refers to musical strategies of film music. hence there are no implicitly singular pieces, but open musical structures – a journey without a predetermined target." On Xerrox Vol. 2, Nicolai turns to a roster of contemporary musicians, including Michael Nyman, Stephen O'Malley, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. This volume of work is more musical and warmer, while at the same time noisier and metallic. Organic instruments are re-sampled and drenched in scattered white noise, washed out with waves of bitcrushing storms, and pierced through with needles of errors. This is not a sound of a stretched magnetic tape. This is a sound of a laser disk passed through a Hollerith punchcard machine, stamping out valuable bits of binary data, daring your brain to fill in the rest. Strip away the conceptual process, and we are left with beautiful dark ambient and modern classical pieces that are haunting and melancholy in their nature, to the likes of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Fennesz. Highly recommended if you enjoy the releases from the acclaimed Roster-Noton label. Make sure you pick up the first volume and watch out for the upcoming releases to complete your set. By the way, expect the entire set to spell XERROX through cover art, as the virst volume displays letter 'X', and this one, if you look closely, are letters 'E' and 'R'. While you're shopping around, I recommend you also pick up Alva Noto's Transform and Unitxt. Oh, and one last thing. Make sure to grab Byetone's Death of a Typographer and Kangding Ray's Autumne Fold.

http://www.myspace.com/alvanoto | http://www.alvanoto.com
http://www.myspace.com/rasternoton | http://www.raster-noton.de

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Lulu Rouge - Bless You (Music For Dreams)

When I posted the Headphone Commute's Best of 2008 list, I received a lot of emails that amounted to "You forgot Lulu Rouge!" What? Lulu who? Yes, I'm sure there was an album that I missed in 2008 (I missed hundreds of them). But with enough pokes in the same direction I was tempted to find out. And yes, I will admit: I did miss Lulu Rouge, because certainly this act belongs on HC's Best of 2008 list. I've been playing this album for months now, and have rated each track at five stars, so it's only fair that I finally give it some proper coverage. How can I describe the dubbed out techno beats that thump their way into my brain and beg to be repeated? How about this: if you loved Trentemøller's The Last Resort (Poker Flat / Rough Trade, 2006), you will certainly fall in love with Lulu Rouge... Especially since Anders Trentemøller co-produced a few tracks on Bless You. Lulu Rouge is actually two friends: Thomas Bertelsen (aka T.O.M and Tom Von Rosen) and Torsten Bo Jacobsen (aka Buda), who have been part of the Scandinavian electronic music scene for some time now. Bertelsen, for example, has been Trentemøller's partner since the beginning stages of The Last Resort. So there's that important synergetic connection. If that doesn't pique your interest, here are some pretty adjectives for you. On Bless You, the Denmark-based duo blend a refreshing concoction of Basic Channel sound with playful rumbling bass sweeps, pulsating IDM elements, delayed dub chords, catchy organic instrumentations, and DSP heavy vocals with contributors like Mikael Simpson, Alice Carreri Pardeilhan, Tuco, and Scott Martingell aka MC Jabber. The stylistic classification ends up falling somewhere between deep minimal and dub downtempo, but one thing is for sure - it's a unique album that will keep you cozy throughout all your moments. Maybe it's time you explored the Scandinavian side of electronica? Highly recommended!

Two and a Half Questions with Lulu Rouge

http://www.myspace.com/lulurougesoundsystem | http://www.lulurouge.com
http://www.myspace.com/musicfordreams | http://www.musicfordreams.dk

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Yagya - Rigning (Sending Orbs)

It is raining. I drag myself out of bed onto the wet pavement for a daily crawl to work. The raindrops typewrite poems on my umbrella. Time to put on Yagya. After a certain point, I can't tell if the sound of the rain is coming from outside, or strictly from my headphones. And does it matter anyway? The subdued dubbed out bass patterns and swelling pad sweeps shove me towards the lazy train against my will. And I trot on, splashing in the water with the beat. On the train, the sleepy commuters fog up the windows with their indifferent morning breath. I wipe away their misery from the glass and stare at the rotation of the city life outside. The bus picks up its passengers. The lights change from yellow to red. People follow predetermined rules. People don't look at each other. Yagya carries the humanity forward. One beat at a time. Yagya carries me to work.Rigning is the long awaited third full length album from Icelandic producer, Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson. This is the second Yagya release on the Dutch label, Sending Orbs, which has released Guðmundsson's Will I Dream During the Process? in 2006. Sending Orbs is also a label which brought us such amazing artists like Kettel, Secede, Blamstrain and Legiac. So I always keep my eyes on their releases.Rigning, which, of course is "rain" in Icelandic, is one of the most beautiful ambient dub-techno compositions to date. But lets not put the emphasis on "techno", since the background pulsing beat exists purely as the rhythmic glue around the wet structure. From beginning to end, the album is a complete conceptual piece wrapped around variations on the main theme, from simplistic track titles (counting up from one to ten) to careful selection of atmospheric elements, to delayed dub minor chords in maintained perfect harmony. It is an album you must hear in its entirety. Over and over.This is an amazing start for great music in 2009, and I'm looking forward to the year if it will bring more sounds like this. After a three year wait, Yagya does not disappoint! Be sure to add this record to your collection along with Yagya's very first release, Rhythm of Snow (Force Inc., 2002), if you can find it. Highly recommended if you like Gas, Biosphere, Intrusion, Echospace and Basic Channel sound.

Two and a Half Questions with Yagya

http://www.myspace.com/steiniplastik
http://www.myspace.com/sendingorbs | http://www.sendingorbs.com

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Lissom - Nest of Iterations (Dragon's Eye)

Descending down a steep slope, I slowly enter a cavern populated with dripping stalactites, swinging wind chimes, and wondering whispers. The dark atmosphere soaks up the humidity of a distant buzzing organism and spews it out through DSP filters and control voltage modulated synths. Through repetitive patterns, nested recursion, and looped iterations, Lissom experiments with data-structure-precise evolving soundscapes, that compile and burst into tiny binary sonic fragments, binding themselves to receptors in the membrane of the synapse. This purely ambient and atmospheric work is built on field recordings, acoustic sources, and synthesized sounds, all pulling me farther, deeper, and away from the perceived reality. In this cave I sit for hours, contemplating the harmony of the spheres and the dissonance of our souls. While the nature lives in agreement, the humanity is polluted by one unconscious thought: "I am not enough". With this exploration of sound, I descend to the most sacred base, where I am everything that I could ever be, one with being. Tana Sprague is an Oakland, CA based sound and video artist, releasing her debut album on Dragon's Eye Recordings under the Lissom moniker. Sprague's intention behind her work is indeed to "manipulate awareness of time, space, place, and scale." Her goal is accomplished through measured tones and hypnotic beatless rhythms. "Inspired by the elegant complexity of organic forms, she utilizes various electronic and digital devices to synthesize a similar enveloping intricacy". On Nest of Iterations, Sprague demonstrates her complete control of sound design, which she no doubt perfected through her studies in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts at the University of California. Nest of Iterations is an excellent addition to Yann Novak's collection of works on his Dragon's Eye Recordings label. Released as a 250 limited edition 5" CD-R, this work will surely become a sought after collector's item to those marveling in the works of Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), Taylor Dupree, Richard Chartier, and Evan Bartholomew. While browsing the label's catalog, don't forget to check out the work by Yann Novak, Marc Manning, Steve Peters, and previously reviewed Kamran Sadeghi.

Two and a Half Questions with Lissom

http://www.myspace.com/01lissome | http://www.sensory-perception.net
http://www.myspace.com/dragonseyerecordings | http://www.dragonseyerecordings.com

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Jega - Geometry (Planet Mu)

Here's a brief history of Planet Mu, which is very much relevant to Jega. Planet Mu was born in 1995, and was originally setup as a sublabel of Virgin Records, on which it initially planned on releasing music by µ-Ziq (Mike Paradinas), and similar artists. The experimental electronic genre that initially was vultured upon by the major labels never took off in the United States, and Virgin gave up spending their marketing dollars on this back-shelf product. In 1998, Paradinas decided to take on the label single-handedly, and, prefixing the releases with ZIQ, released Jega's Type Xer0 as the very first 12-inch. This teaser was followed up with Jega's debut album, Spectrum (Planet Mu, 1998), and from that the rest is history. Prior to his signing on Planet Mu, the man behind the Jega moniker, Dylan Nathan, has already released material on none other than Skam Records. There, with his two EPs, Phlax (Skam, 1996) and Card Hore (Skam, 1997), Nathan fit along perfectly with such contemporary abstract and experimental IDM artists as Bola, Lego Feet, Freeform, Boards of Canada, and of course Gescom. On Spectrum, Nathan rips through melodic breakbeats with newly perfected IDM elements, fitting right at home with Paradinas' µ-Ziq style. Glitched out percussion draws influences from Aphex Twin and even some leftfield downtempo beats ala Amon Tobin, whose first release, Bricolage, came out a year prior on Ninja Tune . Two years later, and a few EPs in between, Nathan releases his sophomore album, Geometry (planet Mu, 2000). This album is much different in tone, and immediately made its impression on me. A lot darker, machine-like chopped up percussion, jitters its way through the cold corridors of sonic spectrum towards the experimental Autechre sound. Although a few atmospheric melodies remain throughout the album, the deep electro beats and metallic effects hold their solid ground. Geometry is definitely among my list of influential albums. In 2004, Jega showed up with a Theme From 1998 on Planet Mu's compilation, Children of Mu. Another track, Aerodynamic, appeared on the label's compilation, Sacred Symbols Of Mu, two years later, in 2006. In 2003, as Nathan was working on his third album, Variance, a copy leaked out onto the sharing networks, and Nathan had to scrap and rework almost all of the tracks. The album is definitely still in the works, and Paradinas mentioned that Variance Vol 1 and Vol 2 will be released as a double album sometime in July, 2009 (!!!). As a matter of fact, Jega showcased his upcoming work during his exclusive set on BBC Radio 1 Experimental on March 11th, 2009 (do your own digging on the planet-mu.com forums to grab a recording). I hope that bit of news got your juices flowing, as I'm sure I'll be reviewing the album once I get my dirty hands on it.

http://www.myspace.com/dylanjeganathan | http://www.jega.com
http://www.myspace.com/childrenofmu | http://www.planet-mu.com

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Rival Consoles - Helvetica (Erased Tapes)

From the label that brought you majestic modern classical music from Icelandic rising star, Ólafur Arnalds, comes a new installment in emotional... wait... what's this? My expectations for melodramatic orchestral stabs are shattered by explosive drums and drilling breaks. Completely unexpected and incredibly welcome, Rival Consoles catches me off guard with his cinematic progressions, which are complemented by breakcore elements a la Venetian Snares. And this is only after I hear a single track on Erased Tapes Collection I, which is available as a free download from the label's website. And so I reach out for some more. Helvetica is Ryan Lee West's second EP on Erased Tapes released under the Rival Consoles moniker. In only four tracks, the record is enough to grab your attention with delicate classical piano arpeggios, IDM influences deriving from the catalog of Rephlex artists, with acid bleeps, breaks, and beats palatable to fans of the above mentioned V-Snares, Aphex Twin, and Boxcutter alike. Yes, I can honestly admit that I'm excited about this artist, because all of these cutesy frequencies are skipping right down my alley, past the puddles of tears and walls punched with mud. Playful, adventurous, and confident, the tracks produced with intricate attention to detail, are only a teaser for the things to come from this Leicester (UK) based producer. The 7-inch vinyl is quickly selling out (already out of stock on some places I checked), but is still available directly from the label; and then of course there is the [mandatory] digital release. Be sure to also get your hands on Rival Consoles debut release, The Decadent EP (Erased Tapes, 2007). And don't forge to pick up the label's digital showcase compilation, commemorating its 1st anniversary, where, besides the track that tipped me off, Ryan Lee West contributes a remix and yet another track under his alter ego, Aparatec. Remember, it's free! Jump on this wagon. Quick!

Two and a Half Questions With Ryan Lee West

http://www.myspace.com/rivalconsoles | http://www.erasedtapes.com

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Bersarin Quartett - Bersarin Quartett (Lidar)

From the very few opening notes, I know that I'm in for a treat. As the album progresses, I get wide-eyed, and instead of paying attention to details [I know I will be coming back for more later], I spend time researching, tracing the steps that led me to accidentally miss this album, and calling all my friends to tell them about Bersarin Quartett. It's like I missed an entire year, while the self-titled album was there all along, spreading its loveliness across all open ears but mine. Well, I hope it's not too late to bluntly rant and rave about it, so that those who are asleep like me, can be awakened with this bliss. Because, kids, this is another one of those albums that rapidly wedges its way into the previously posted and now begging to be revised, Best of 2008 list. Bersarin Quartett is the solo project of Thomas Bücker, who for a while was hiding in the shadows under blank names in net-label releases Electronica Unplugged 1 (Aerotone, 2006) and its followup, Electronica Unplugged 2 (Aerotone, 2007). But digging deeper through a web of contributions and aliases, Bücker's discography reveals production work through an entire decade, when under the Jean-Michel moniker he released Marshmallow Rooms (Eleganz Records, 1999). OK, so at least I'm not drooling over a newcomer who completely blew me away with his production and composition. That is not to say that it underplays the work in any shape or form. On Bersarin Quartett, Bücker picks up the conductor's baton and draws all eyes upon him. With elegant gestures, he moves the modern classical progressions through ambient orchestral drones ala Biosphere's Shenzhou (Touch, 2002), to paced minimal pieces reminescent of Marsen Jules' Les Fleurs (City Centre Offices, 2006), to cinematic soundtracks and program music of Max Richter's The Blue Notebooks (130701, 2004), all beautifully complemented with a light touch of elements of jazzy experimental IDM to land among the fans of Murcof, Helios, and The Cinematic Orchestra. How is that for some name dropping? The man behind the music on Bersarin Quartett laughs at my attempt of making The Best of 2008 Compilation mix of my favorite tracks, and instead drops his entire album on my lap. "Here. Listen to this. How is that for summarizing your favorite music of the latter years?" The imaginary projection of his voice is right. This album has it all. Enough to fill a page with adjectives, comparisons, and clichés. Instead, I'm feverishly typing words into this box in a desperate attempt to get you to listen to the album at all costs and then judge for yourself. Seriously. Just get it. Bersarin Quartett is the second release on Dortmund based (Germany) Lidar Productions label which first put out Jasper TX's A Darkness, back in 2007. If you're having trouble locating Bersarin Quartett in the US, may I recommend our good friends at n5MD, who have a few copies in their excellent mail order shop. Recommended for the likes of the above mentioned artists plus Emanuelle Errante, Jacaszek, Julien Neto and Rafael Anton Irisarri.

http://www.myspace.com/bersarinquartett | http://www.beatsbeyond.de
http://www.myspace.com/lidarproductions | http://www.lidar-productions.net

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Another Electronic Musician - Five (n5MD)

It's about time that I got my hands on Jase Rex's fifth release, appropriately titled Five. Critics universally agree, that unlike his moniker suggests, Rex is not just Another Electronic Musician. And though the past releases by Rex were closer to subdued melodic electronica, this album clearly puts the D in IDM. Familiar playful glitchy percussion is complimented by strictly defined rhythmic structures, covering groovy dub beats with layers of pads, delayed jazzy chords, and sprinkles of digital errors. Five becomes more than a head bopping album, it begs for a loungy atmosphere and shoulder popping dance floor alike. These days Jase Rex is hanging out in Southern California, where he must surround himself by a vast influential musical library, from early pioneers of electronica to the latest craze of dubstep, as it clearly reflects in his music. This marriage of the old and the new is at once familiar and welcome, as the two favorite elements bridge together in the album that keeps on pumping catchy hooks in every track. Where sound becomes a story, and the story yields the sound. This is an interesting addition to n5MD, considering that this highly reputable and personally admired Oakland based label, tends to [lately] focus on less upbeat releases - from ambient neofolk by Last Days, to electronic dreamscapes from Near The Parenthesis, to post-rock shoegaze by the owner himself, Mike Cadoo (aka Bitcrush). It's an interesting avenue that is only applauded by at least this fan of the label. Although I tend to agree that IDM in its original incarnation may be long dead, and that the acronym is slapped and overused by many, we owe it to Another Electronic Musician for keeping it alive (even if it needs a little life support). Thank you, Jase, for a wonderful reminder of the times that are still yet to come.

Two and a Half Questions with Another Electronic Musician

http://www.myspace.com/anotherelectronicmusician | http://www.anotherelectronicmusician.com
http://www.myspace.com/n5mafia | http://www.n5md.com

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Interbellum - Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear (FlingcoSoundSystem)

FlingcoSoundSystem is a relatively new Chicago based label spearheaded by Bruce Adams, who back in 1993 was one of the co-founders behind Kranky. OK, do I have your attention? Now settle down and keep listening. With this fourth label release, Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear, FSS is introducing us to Brendan Burke, aka Interbellum. On the album, we hear Burke behind the piano, while Fred Lonberg-Holm softly plays the cello. The tracks are recorded in their open ended form, following a minimal restraint digital and acoustic manipulation, with the help of applied mathematics and durational processing. I'd be lying if I said I really understood the mathematical formulations in this piece, but it is the end-result that's important here. And it speaks for itself. Fans of long form and improvisational modern classical pieces would be absolutely delighted to hear this duet. While none of the pieces overpower the mind with concrete melodical structure, the overall drifting experience is that of pure musical exploration. Throughout the album, the sound vibrates, travels, and floats in and out of our peripheral hearing, until the slightly audible voice becomes almost coherent, only to drown again in the harmony of bowed and struck strings, which flips between the major and minor scales, like a child laughing through the tears after a fall. This unobtrusive wondering through musical modes becomes especially apparent during the second track on the album, The Life and Death of Anne Zimmerman, which is over twenty minutes long. Add to that some distant crackling, echoed machine buzzing, and you've got yourself a requiem for the living. Interbellum [in its definition of the word], is a period of time between wars (World Wars I and II to be more specific). Perhaps such definition will explain the more somber mood of of this unfolding album, which, as with all other FSS releases, is meant to be listened to in one sitting, as a collection of sequenced tracks, making up a coherent album as a whole. Pick up this digital release from flingcosound.com available for download for only $5. Recommended if you like Richard Skelton, Machinefabriek and Sylvain Chauveau as well as some acoustic pieces by The World's End Girlfriend.

Two and a Half Questions with Brendan Burke

http://www.myspace.com/interbellumsound | http://www.flingcosound.com

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Mechanical Steering - 10:10pm (self)

It seems that bigger labels started to steer away from straight up IDM in the recent years. Perhaps the passing away of Merck, and the resurrection of Neo Ouija may be a testament to that. Even n5MD chilled out and turned towards emotional electronica. In my opinion it has to do with evolution of sound, and the perfection and polishing thereof. You pick a direction and you go with it. So it was a pleasure to stumble upon an exciting and innovative album by an unsigned artist who goes by the name of Mechanical Steering. As always, with amazing self released albums, there is a spark of excitement in the air, the standing waves of sound excited with organic electricity, the crackle of the processed bits bouncing off the porous walls into my body. You feel as if on the tip of discovery. And that discovery is this unknown album by an unsigned name.Designed from sampled urban environmental sounds and digital manipulation, 10:10pm is a poisonous cocktail of melancholic melodies and distorted beats. The sounds break through the web of suffocating percussion and shifting noise, bombarding your ears and mind with complex patterns that resolve into the beauty of their simplicity. Complimented with industrial mechanical sounds, dark passageways, and deep descends, the sound slowly rises to the surface where you find yourself catching 10:10 on the clock again. And again...Konin (Poland) based Mechanical Steering has ben producing electronic music since 1999. Initially creating a few albums under the alias Head, the music slowly matured into the sound of 10:10pm. It's a wonder that this artist has not been snatched by a prominent label yet, as I can totally see his releases on Ad Noiseam, Hymen and Tympanik alike. The album is currently self distributed on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, and lala.com (note: 10:10pm is published under the Head alias). Recommended if you like Hecq, Gridlock, Subheim and Ginormous.

Two and a Half Questions with Mechanical Steering

http://www.myspace.com/mechanicalsteering | http://www.mechanicalsteering.com

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:papercutz - Lylac (Apegenine)

From digitally manipulated recordings of organic instruments, to organic interpretations of abstract digitalism, :papercutz presents his debut album, Lylac, for the fans of experimental leftfield pop music. Broken breathy vocals contributed by Melissa Veras intermix with thematic elements of chords, stabs, and plucked strings, all without taking on the lead in the arrangement; while glitched out beats and sprinkled multi instrumentation take to the forefront instead. :papercutz is Portuguese Bruno Miguel, who first appeared on the scene with his Ultravioleta EP on Montreal based Apegenine recordings [the same label that introduced us to Emanuele Errante and Julien Neto on Apegenine Volume 1 compilation (2004)]. On his site, among a more interesting explanation behind the concept of the album, Miguel defines: "To be papercutzed: to pursue your own way, to dream images in music, to like the light as well as the dark, to see all music styles as valid languages in which artists use to describe what's inside them, to find :papercutz's music and ideas a place where you can lose yourself... let's get lost!" Hmmm. I like that. I've always thought of our five senses as just receptors of various communication protocols through which we all attempt to send or receive a message. Albeit very much unsuccessfully, since all our visual and auditory sensors get corrupted with real and imaginary noise and do not have built in error correction. But I digress [feel free to ping me on this topic though]... On Lylac, Miguel does just that. He fans out the confetti of his shredded thoughts into our ears where they circle, float, and finally settle to cover the empty spaces occupied by silence. It's nice to finally get to know :papercutz on a more personal level after such a brief introduction via Ultravioleta EP, although be it with a few helpful remixes of The Sight Below, Neotropic, Spandex and Signer.

http://www.myspace.com/papercutzed | http://www.papercutzed.com
http://www.myspace.com/apeg | http://www.apegenine.com

Two and a Half Questions with Bruno Miguel

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Propellerheads - Decksandrumsandrockandroll (Wall of Sound)

So whatever happened to these guys? You remember their hit single History Repeating, which at one point was played on every radio station back in 1997 after being featured in that hysterical film, There's Something About Mary. Then, there was the Spybreak! track which appeared in The Matrix. Meanwhile, the track Crash, was used in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Even the Take California track from this same album was the first song ever used in an iPod commercial. So, by my calculations, these guys had it going for them, and then poof! Nothing! Did they just cash out? The only full length album to date is Decksandrumsandrockandroll released on London based Wall of Sound back in 1998. The big beat sound by Will White and Alex Gifford quickly took the world by storm. The groovy and repetitive beats which were perfected at the time by The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, and The Crystal Method take on a jazzy, funky and playful spin, with a few vocal samples, turning on a few new mainstream listeners to breaks and breakbeat. On the track, 360° (Oh Yeah?), De La Soul contributes frozen-style urban rhymes that quickly flip the record to intelligent slow-groove loungy hip-hop sound. History Repeating is of course at the center of the album, featuring the vocals of '60s cabaret vocalist, Shirley Bassey. This is definitely a catchy tune that quickly got snatched up by a few advertising campaigns (including a Jaguar and a Pantene Pro-V commercial... heh). But the big beat sound proliferates the album, prominent with plenty of breaks, James Bond-like spy film themes, and the head-bopping sounds that still sound super fresh a decade later. Propellerheads are still quiet. No new tracks and no new albums since the one and only. Well, there was one new track, appropriately titled 10 Years, which appeared on the Wall of Sound's compilation double disk, Off The Wall - 10 Years Of Wall Of Sound, commemorating the labels, well... you guessed it, 10 year anniversary. Last I heard, Will White played the drums for Long Range during its live performances. Long Range, of course, is a UK group comprised of Nick Smith and Phil Hartnoll of Orbital. Meanwhile, I continue to enjoy this album time and time again... And until the duo decides to get back into the studio, I have only one thing to say: Bang On!

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The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (Take Me to the Hospital)

Should I even bother covering this? It's not like Liam needs my help. His 5th studio album, Invaders Must Die, barely hit the streets, and already all of the notable publications have lauded this long awaited album with more than favorable reviews. It's not like Liam needs my words to boost his career, although it's been five years since his last album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (XL, 2004). And I do mean - his. Besides what you may hear or believe, the man... the only man... the musical genius, The Prodigy, is Liam Howlett. Yet while the words pour in, the shouts and murmurs accelerate in frequency, and a stack of promos from independent labels and unknown artists grows on my desk, here I am... writing about the album. I think the reason behind it is simple. And my woofers can attest. Invaders Must Die is a slam dunk. Period. No, it's not the anticlimactic return of the artist who blew out the speakers of my first owned car with Experience (XL, 1992). It's not the attempt of reinvention of the incredibly powerful and unprecedented underground sound of Music For The Jilted Generation (XL, 1994). It's not even the post-script of the pop-rising and slightly weathered return of The Fat of the Land (XL, 1997). While the rest adapt, remix, rinse, spit and swallow, Howlett bursts our comfort membranes with his own masterful style. Pop! Invaders Must Die opens up with a title track slamming into your face with saw toothed synths, distorted guitars, and extreme precision rhythmic programming of the genre that was invented by the man himself. Oh please, please, please let the album be as good as the first track! And so it goes! A collection of eleven songs [I'll call'em songs since some have the lyrics in that famous Prodigy style], pushes and jolts your brain as if strapped to a hot electrode until the very end. Acoustic drums are compressed and mashed up into pounding big beats, with deep riding bass lines, occasionally cut with a flashback to The Prodigy's older tracks. My favorite, of course, are the re-sampled old-skool rave stabs, which are implanted in my memory and in the history of Electronic Music. Here, Howlett skillfully wraps all the elements into a radio hit format, which no doubt will top the UK charts. Quick nod to Take Me to the Hospital, a sub-label of London based Cooking Vinyl, specifically created to put out this, and possibly other upcoming releases by The Prodigy. Although, as I said, all of the music is all Liam, the two original members of the act, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality, return, no doubt to wreak havoc on the upcoming UK arena tour with some support from Dizzee Rascal and Fight Like Apes. If you are a collector of all EPs, offshoots, and limited goodies, you absolutely must get the Omen EP where Noisia contributes a sick drum'n'bass remix. Play it loud!

http://www.myspace.com/theprodigy | http://www.theprodigy.com
http://www.cookingvinyl.com

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Spleen - Where We All Fit In (Summer Rain Recordings)

Beautiful melodic electronica will always have a slot on my shelf. Even if it's a digital only release. And here's one from a quickly gaining recognition netlabel, Summer Rain Recordings. And the label has a clear defined goal and purpose - all signed artists donate 5% of their royalties to NextAid (or any selected charity). And this is music you should be gladly paying for anyway. Spacey, euphoric, and melancholic - the sound of Where We All Fit In falls somewhere between downtempo and IDM. In fact, Spleen defines the style himself as melantronica. But it's not just sadness that saturates this four track EP. In many places it is up-beat, light-hearted and breezy, perfectly fitting on an appropriately named label. Spleen is the solo project of Antwerp (Belgium) based Lennart Vanstaen. His musical influences include Radiohead, The Album Leaf and a roster of Icelandic musicians like Sigur Ròs, Björk and Mùm. Mentioning those artists should give you a rough idea of Vanstaen's influenced style. It's easy to imagine this music accompanying a film, a lonely commute, a soundtrack to a passing life. In fact, Vanstaen has collaborated with Sophie Vanhomwegen to produce a soundtrack for a short film, Whatever Floats Your Boat, which was selected for the HDFEST film festival. This EP is Spleen's second release on Summer Rain Recordings. His previous contribution was 6 Moons Ago EP released in February 2008. [I want to make a quick note, that Lennart Vanstaen's alias Spleen, is not to be confused with Miro Merlak's Spleen, who released a self-titled electronic album on Phthalo Records in 2001].

http://www.myspace.com/visitspleen
http://www.myspace.com/summerrainrecordings | http://www.summerrainrecordings.net

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last.fm artist and label cloud mentioned in the above post: The Refractors, The Lullaby League, Fjordne, A Lily, Sleeping Me, Pawn, Celer, Ryonkt, Cloudburst, Elian, Segue, Porzellan, Glenn Ryszko, Entia Non, Ian Hawgood, Carsten Nicolai, Alva Noto, Michael Nyman, Stephen O'Malley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Fennesz, Byetone, Kangding Ray, Lulu Rouge, Trentemøller, Buda, Yagya, Gas, Biosphere, Intrusion, Echospace, Kettel, Secede, Blamstrain, Legiac, lissom, Yann Novak, Marc Manning, Steve peters, Kamran Sadeghi, Jega, µ-Ziq, Bola, Lego Feet, Freeform, Boards of Canada, Gescom, Autechre, Rival Consoles, Venetian Snares, Aphex Twin, Boxcutter, Aparatec, Ólafur Arnalds, Bersarin Quartett, Biosphere, Marsen Jules, Max Richter, Murcof, Helios, The Cinematic Orchestra, Jasper TX, Emanuele Errante, Jacaszek, Julien Neto, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Another Electronic Musician, Last Days, Near The Parenthesis, Bitcrush, interbellum, Richard Skelton, Machinefabriek, Sylvain Chauveau, The World's End Girlfriend, Mechanical Steering, Hecq, Gridlock, Subheim, Ginormous, :papercutz, The Sight Below, Neotropic, Spandex, Signer, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, Orbital, Propellerheads, Noisia, Spleen, Radiohead, The Album Leaf, Sigur Ròs, Björk, mùm, Dynamophone Records, Hidden Shoal Recordings, 12K, ROOM40, Dragon's Eye, Spekk, Sending Orbs, Force Inc., Basic Channel, Planet Mu, Ninja Tune, Erased Tapes, Rephlex, aerotone, City Centre Offices, Touch, n5MD, Kranky, merck, Neo Ouija, Ad Noiseam, Hymen, Tympanik Audio, Apegenine, Wall Of Sound, Take Me To The Hospital, XL, Summer Rain Recordings

Score 5,000 - 4,701

This is the section of the 'My Personal Best Albums Ever'-journal where I discuss the albums with a score between 5,000 and 4,701. You'll find some information about these albums, including my personal highlights. I'll try to eventually review every album in this list. I hope you will enjoy reading this all, but first I'll give you some links to the other parts of this journal.

The main article: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights
Score 7,000 - 5,751: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (1)
Score 5,750 - 5,001: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (2)
Score 4,700 - 4,401: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (4)
Score 4,400 - 4,201: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (5)
Score 4,200 - 4,000: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (6)


Reviews & Highlights


Tipper - Surrounded (2003)
Score: 4,998; Length: 59:01; 12 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Tear Strips Off, Screw Loose, Over the Coals, Rotundus Maximus, The Glasshouse

Jega - Spectrum (1998/1999)
Score: 4,957; Length: 1:18:16; 17 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Phalanx, NIA, Unity Gain, Brad's Garden Maintenance, German, Intron.IX, Bikini Ski Boat

Chris Clark - Clarence Park (2001)
Score: 4,944; Length: 31:50; 14 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: The Dogs, Proper Lofi, Bricks, The Chase, Lord of the Dance, Diesel Raven

Wisp - Building Dragons (2006)
Score: 4,940; Length: 30:45; 6 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Hall Of Kings, The Bard

LTJ Bukem - Producer 01 (2000)
Score: 4,925; Length: 1:13:40; 9 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Constellation, Demon's Theme, Music, Atlantis

Pilote - Kingfood (2002)
Score: 4,898; Length: 43:46; 10 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Can you keep a secret?, Welcome, Three Hundred

Faithless - Reverence (1996)
Score: 4,895; Length: 52:45; 10 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Salva Mea, Insomnia, Drifting Away

Elsiane - Hybrid (2007)
Score: 4,890; Length: 44:55; 11 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Vaporous, Ecclesia, Paranoia

Various Artists (Humanworkshop) - 1 (2004)
Score: 4,888; Length: 1:04:56; 14 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Seperated Junkfood, Theme Song Six, Sect Of Liberation, Her Bowed Sawtooth, Psilocibaclysm

Clark - Turning Dragon (2008)
Score: 4,875; Length: 52:56; 13 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: New Year Storm, For Wolves Crew, Violenl, BEG, Penultimate Persian

Thom Yorke - The Eraser (2006)
Score: 4,874; Length: 40:55; 9 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: The Eraser, Analyse, The Clock, Harrowdown Hill

Frank Riggio - Noise Thinking (2009)
Score: 4,835; Length: 32:38; 7 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Zebra Cobra, Perplex People

Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
Score: 4,815; Length: 56:54; 15 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Tomorrow Comes Today, Clint Eastwood, Man Research (Clapper), Sound Check (Gravity), Starshine

The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land (1997)
Score: 4,812; Length: 56:21; 10 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe, Mindfields, Firestarter

The Cinematic Orchestra - Les Ailes Pourpres (2009)
Score: 4,805; Length: 46:31; 12 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: The Dance, Marabou, Hyena, Crimson Skies

Amon Tobin - The Mixes (Bootleg) (2CD) (2003)
Score: 4,795; Length: 1:38:27; 17 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Grief (Amon Tobin remix), Pick Up The Pieces Of Saturn (Amon Tobin Mosh Remix), Scuba (Amon Tobin remix), Four Ton Mantis (Bonobo mix), Polyesterday (Amon Tobin Remix), Curiosidade (Amon Tobin Remix)

Red Snapper - Our Aim is to Satisfy Red Snapper (2000)
Score: 4,775; Length: 56:53; 11 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Keeping Pigs Together, Alaska Street, Belladonna, They're Hanging Me Tonight

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (2006)
Score: 4,770; Length: 1:08:54; 11 tracks
I accidentily came across this band. I was planning to go to a concert of 'King Cannibal' and 'The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble' was one of the other acts that would perform that same evening. The name of the band got me instantly interested and when noticing that Jason Köhnen, better known as Bong-Ra, was one of the lead-members of the band, I couldn't wait to hear it. When you're only thirty seconds into this album, you know they will take you on a long deep trip. 'The Nothing Changes' is such a subtle moving dark masterpiece and sets the mood for the whole album. It even gets better at 'Pearls For Swine' when they mix these same kind of moods with some proper beats, eventually leading into an outrageous breakcore part, something you can only expect in a jazzband when Jason is involved. The rest of the album doesn't have breakcore elements at all, as far as I can hear. That doesn't mean the beats are gone, though, don't worry! It moves on as an ever evolving emotional masterpiece, and I repeat, masterpiece. The whole album has so much dept, it's amazing. This absolutely falls in the 'must-have' category for people that get excited when hearing about a cinematic jazz band creating a very dark everchanging atmosphere, supported by just the right amount of electronica. (06-03-2009)
Highlights: The Nothing Changes, Pearls For Swine, Lobby

Various Artists (Shadow Records / NINEBARecords) - Joint Ventures (1997)
Score: 4,733; Length: 1:13:09; 13 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Imminent Attack, Predatary, Scram, Toe Jam, Y London Will Never Swing

DJ Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz CD1 (1996)
Score: 4,724; Length: 57:52; 12 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Gangsta Shit, Suckers Never Play That, Sang-Lien, Dieu Reconnaitra Les Siens

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Mutations (2008)
Score: 4,701; Length: 38:16; 8 tracks
This will be the place for the review.
Highlights: Twisted Horizons, Shadows
Links to the other parts of this journal

The main article: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights
Score 7,000 - 5,751: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (1)
Score 5,750 - 5,001: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (2)
Score 4,700 - 4,401: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (4)
Score 4,400 - 4,201: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (5)
Score 4,200 - 4,000: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (6)

The main article

This is the section of the 'My Personal Best Albums Ever'-journal where the entire list of best albums is presented. At first, all the reviews and highlights were included in this main article too. It made the journal a little bit oversized though, so I decided to split the journal up in parts. Before I begin this journal, I'll give you the links to the other parts of the journal.

Score 7,000 - 5,751: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (1)
Score 5,750 - 5,001: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (2)
Score 5,000 - 4,701: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (3)
Score 4,700 - 4,401: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (4)
Score 4,400 - 4,201: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (5)
Score 4,200 - 4,000: My Personal Best Albums Ever + Reviews & Highlights (6)


Introduction and Explanation

Thanks for reading this journal! I've put a lot of work into making this journal, so it's really nice to see when people enjoy reading it. Before you begin to read though, I think I have some things to explain.

First of all, this is just my personal view of the best albums that exist. I explicitly do not say that these áre indeed the best albums around (I don't know how to say that objectively anyway), it's just my personal taste. And ofcourse, there probably are a lot of albums that deserve to be in this list, but I just haven't heard them yet.

When writing this journal, it was meant to be read by people with kind of the same taste of music as I have. I happen to listen to a mixture of downtempo, drum and bass, idm, trip-hop, ambient, breakbeat & jazz. When you do happen to have the same taste, you will see a lot of albums you enjoy yourself also, but probably there are some artists and albums you've never heard of. Well, check them out, because there's a big chance you will like them too! I think a lot of people on last.fm are constantly busy looking for new good listening material. I figured out that by letting you all know what my personal favourite albums are it would be the easiest way to let you know what music you would be 'missing'. So enjoy the list, I hope you will find some new future alltime favourites. And when you do, please tell me, I'd really like to know!

Just underneath this introduction you will see my album ranking. Each album has his own score. The score is calculated this way: In my iTunes I rate each song I listen to. When I don't like the song I will rate it with just one star. I've designed my playlists in a way that songs with one star will never be played again when I listen to my music on shuffle. Songs with two stars get a playcount of 1, songs with three stars get a playcount of 2, songs with four stars get a playcount of 4 and five star songs get a playcount of 7. So when I listen to shuffle, a *****-song will come along 7 times as much as a **-song. I decided to rate my albums using this playcount system.

When an album with just two tracks for example has one ***-rated song of 1:24 and one *****-rated song of 3:20, his score will be calculated like this; it has a song of 84 seconds with playcount 2 and a song of 200 seconds with playcount 7, so it had an average playcount of (84*2+200*7)/(84+200)=1568/284=5,521. So it's score will be 5,521. All albums are ranked using this system. The consequense is that 7 is the maximum score (just *****-tracks). I've decided to put all the albums on the list which have a minimum score of 4. So theoreticly an album with just ****-tracks will júst make the list.

At the bottom of this list I've added a seperate section for every album. It will eventually include the release date, the length, the number of tracks, a personal review and the highlights of the album (which are the tracks I rate with five stars). It might take a while for me to add a review for every album in this list, so for now this journal is a journal with 'work in progress'-signs. But still this journal might already be a good source of new music for you, so don't let this 'work in progress' prevent you from discovering some new quality music!

Now there's only a little thing left to say: If you enjoy what you're reading, if you've found some good music with help of this list, if you think some albums are missing in this list or if you think some albums don't deserve to be in this list --> post it! Especially when you think something is missing in this list I'm all ears, because I'm always on the hunt for good new music (well, at least new for me I mean).

Enjoy!


My Personal Best Albums Ever

001) Score: 6,762 Bonobo - One Offs... Remixes & B-Sides
002) Score: 6,748 Amon Tobin - Permutation
003) Score: 6,737 Portishead - Roseland NYC Live
004) Score: 6,716 Amon Tobin - Foley Room
005) Score: 6,657 Bonobo - Dial 'M' for Monkey
006) Score: 6,655 Amon Tobin - Out From Out Where
007) Score: 6,547 Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory
008) Score: 6,367 Bonobo - Animal Magic
009) Score: 6,309 Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic
010) Score: 6,294 Wisp & Denizen - Quest for Excalipur!
011) Score: 6,285 Wisp - About Things That Never Were CD1
012) Score: 6,264 Amon Tobin - Bricolage
013) Score: 6,208 Four Tet - Rounds
014) Score: 6,122 Amon Tobin - Supermodified
015) Score: 6,051 Cujo - Adventures in Foam (2CD)
016) Score: 5,997 Portishead - Dummy
017) Score: 5,879 Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
018) Score: 5,850 Peace Orchestra - Peace Orchestra
019) Score: 5,847 remus - The 5th Season
020) Score: 5,784 Amen Andrews - Volume 01, Volume 02, Volume 03, Volume 04 & Volume 05
021) Score: 5,782 Massive Attack - Mezzanine
022) Score: 5,698 St. Germain - Tourist
023) Score: 5,663 Massive Attack - 100th Window
024) Score: 5,656 Wisp - In a Blue Face
025) Score: 5,649 The Flashbulb - Réunion
026) Score: 5,612 Yonderboi - Shallow and Profound
027) Score: 5,611 Saltillo - Ganglion
028) Score: 5,539 Four Tet - Pause
029) Score: 5,530 Kruder & Dorfmeister - The K&D Sessions™ (2CD)
030) Score: 5,498 Aphex Twin - Drukqs (2CD)
031) Score: 5,404 Amon Tobin - The B-Sides (Bootleg) (2CD)
032) Score: 5,288 Radiohead - In Rainbows CD1
033) Score: 5,231 Chris Clark - Empty the Bones of You
034) Score: 5,228 Wolfgang Frisch - The Hundred
035) Score: 5,180 Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
036) Score: 5,164 Koop - Sons Of Koop
037) Score: 5,162 Portishead - Portishead
038) Score: 5,152 Röyksopp - Melody A.M.
039) Score: 5,076 Wisp - Honor Beats
040) Score: 5,071 Deftones - White Pony
041) Score: 4,998 Tipper - Surrounded
042) Score: 4,957 Jega - Spectrum
043) Score: 4,944 Chris Clark - Clarence Park
044) Score: 4,940 Wisp - Building Dragons
045) Score: 4,925 LTJ Bukem - Producer 01
046) Score: 4,898 Pilote - Kingfood
047) Score: 4,895 Faithless - Reverence
048) Score: 4,890 Elsiane - Hybrid
049) Score: 4,888 Various Artists (Humanworkshop) - 1
050) Score: 4,875 Clark - Turning Dragon
051) Score: 4,874 Thom Yorke - The Eraser
052) Score: 4,835 Frank Riggio - Noise Thinking
053) Score: 4,815 Gorillaz - Gorillaz
054) Score: 4,812 The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land
055) Score: 4,805 The Cinematic Orchestra - Les Ailes Pourpres
056) Score: 4,795 Amon Tobin - The Mixes (Bootleg) (2CD)
057) Score: 4,775 Red Snapper - Our Aim is to Satisfy Red Snapper
058) Score: 4,770 The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
059) Score: 4,733 Various Artists (Shadow Records) - Joint Ventures
060) Score: 4,724 DJ Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz CD1
061) Score: 4,701 The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Mutations
062) Score: 4,696 Underworld - 1992-2002 (2CD)
063) Score: 4,682 Clark - Body Riddle
064) Score: 4,671 Coldplay - Parachutes
065) Score: 4,651 Pilote - Doitnowman
066) Score: 4,626 Sureshot - Underground Symphony
067) Score: 4,610 Blockhead - Music By Cavelight
068) Score: 4,604 Radiohead - Kid A
069) Score: 4,597 Plug - Drum 'n' Bass for Papa CD1
070) Score: 4,585 Kruder & Dorfmeister - DJ-Kicks
071) Score: 4,571 The Cinematic Orchestra - Remixes 98-2000
072) Score: 4,559 Björk - Homogenic
073) Score: 4,553 Red Snapper - Making Bones
074) Score: 4,549 Faithless - Outrospective
075) Score: 4,546 Amon Tobin - Verbal Remixes & Collaborations
076) Score: 4,505 Red Snapper - A Pale Blue Dot
077) Score: 4,467 Moby - Play
078) Score: 4,467 Moby - 18
079) Score: 4,446 Blackfilm - Blackfilm
080) Score: 4,440 Pest - Necessary Measures
081) Score: 4,432 Emancipator - Soon it Will be Cold Enough
082) Score: 4,419 PFM - Producer 02
083) Score: 4,403 Red Snapper - Red Snapper
084) Score: 4,384 Davide Swarup - Music For Hang
085) Score: 4,378 Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
086) Score: 4,376 Calyx & Teebee - Anatomy
087) Score: 4,361 Radiohead - OK Computer
088) Score: 4,316 Gigi D'Agostino - Tecno Fes Vol. 2
089) Score: 4,308 Venetian Snares - My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)
090) Score: 4,277 Dido - No Angel
091) Score: 4,276 Alanis Morissette - MTV Unplugged
092) Score: 4,273 Distance - Repercussions CD2: Chestplate
093) Score: 4,266 Clint Mansell - The Fountain OST
094) Score: 4,258 Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby
095) Score: 4,226 Room Eleven - Six White Russians And A Pink Pussycat (2CD)
096) Score: 4,225 Alphawezen - L' Après: Midi d'Un Microphone
097) Score: 4,225 Teebee - The Legacy CD1
098) Score: 4,208 Frank Riggio - Anamorphose
099) Score: 4,206 Syl Kougaï - La fille verte
100) Score: 4,193 DJ Krush - Krush
101) Score: 4,178 Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
102) Score: 4,149 The Cinematic Orchestra - Motion
103) Score: 4,144 Four Tet - Dialogue
104) Score: 4,141 Archive - Londinium
105) Score: 4,123 The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
106) Score: 4,110 Dusted - When We Were Young
107) Score: 4,097 The Cinematic Orchestra - Every Day
108) Score: 4,094 Moby - Play: The B-Sides
109) Score: 4,058 Orbital - In Sides CD1
110) Score: 4,050 Kruder & Dorfmeister - Conversions: A K&D Selection
111) Score: 4,045 The Cinematic Orchestra - Man With a Movie Camera
112) Score: 4,030 SlowHill - Fennika
113) Score: 4,018 Mandalay - Empathy
114) Score: 4,011 N*E*R*D - In Search Of...
115) Score: 4,006 Photek - Modus Operandi
116) Score: 4,003 Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles

Reviews & Highlights

If you follow the links below, you will find my personal opinion about the albums mentioned above, including a little review and the highlights of the album.



Score 7,000 - 5,751:





Score 5,750 - 5,001:





Score 5,000 - 4,701:





Score 4,700 - 4,401:





Score 4,400 - 4,201:






Score 4,200 - 4,000:

Here comes your October installment of Headphone Commute reviews with a few excellent interviews with Hauschka, Last Days, Max Richter, Deru, Anders Ilar. Some really good albums in here, which I hope you will enjoy. As always, I would appreciate a comment or two, and would love it if you could Subscribe to RSS Feed. No time is wasted - here it comes!

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Hauschka - Ferndorf (130701)

When I'm in the mood for classical piano and chamber music, I usually turn to a bottomless repertoire of Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Chopin, Stravinsky and Beethoven. For a more edgier, experimental, and contemporary feel, I queue up modern classical composers like Arvo Pärt, Phillip Glass, Nico Muhly and Max Richter. I'm definitely adding Hauschka to the latter list. I first discovered Volker Bertelmann upon the release of his sophomore album The Prepared Piano (Karaoke Kalk, 2005). It was an exploration into brutal modifications with adjusted hammers and padded strings that was more on avant-garde side (see John Cage's credited invention of the prepared piano), and made me listen closer for the adjustments in my favorite instrument. The fourth full length album from this Düsseldorf based pianist and composer explores every chamber instrument in its full capacity. On Ferndorf (translating into 'remote village' from German), Hauschka brings in two cellists, violinist and even a trombone player to construct modern classical pieces that are pleasant on the ear and the soul. Five out of twelve tracks appear to be "purely improvised", yet elicit strong musicianship from the participating players. Alluding to his birthplace in rural Germany, the trip along the memory lane, is an upbeat skip and hop. Here, Bertelmann revisits his childhood influences contributing to his decade long affair with the piano. Where most major-chord filled pieces usually fill me with a post-neo-classical dread of scale walking, Hauschka keeps restraint and tends to concentrate on execution and message of each individual piece. Of course, no such trip ever occurs without a touch of melancholy. Here, too, Hauschka excels in creating majestic and musical compositions, all whilst adding a touch of modern experimentation and exploration of live instruments, to let his composition rise just a notch above the rest. Deep respect to Bertelmann for extracting all percussive attributes from a beloved instrument while keeping it waltzing with joy. Grab this latest release from FatCat's sister label, 130701. Similar artist cloud includes Goldmund, Deaf Center, Sylvain Chauveau, Library Tapes, Peter Broderick, Marsen Jules, and of course Max Richter and Ryuuichi Sakamoto.

Update: Hauschka is currently on tour! Be sure to visit his myspace page for Upcoming Shows schedule.

Two and a Half Questions with Hauschka

http://www.myspace.com/hauschka | http://www.hauschka-net.de
http://www.myspace.com/fatcatrecords | http://www.fat-cat.co.uk

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Plaid - Tekkon Kinkreet (Aniplex Inc.)

I was originally postponing any reviews of Plaid in anticipation of their new album, Scintilli, originally planned to be released sometime in Q4 of 2008. But it seems that it has now been postponed to mid 2009, and I can't wait that long to talk about one of my favorite artists (which you should already know all about). And what could I say about Andy Turner and Ed Handley that hasn't been said before? As former members of The Black Dog, their discography goes back to the early 90s. Their official first appearance on Warp as Plaid was with Not For Threes (Warp, 1997) followed by a dozen of LPs and EPs. This year the duo celebrated their 20th anniversary of working together. In 2006, Plaid composed their first soundtrack to the Japanese anime, Tekkon Kinkreet (Studio 4°C, directed by Michael Arias), and just completed yet another soundtrack to Arias' 2009 film, Heaven's Door [to be released by Beatink in Dec 2008 or Jan 2009]. But back to the official soundtrack for Tekkon Kinkreet (which is actually a pun on "Tekkin Concrete", the Japanese term for reinforced concrete). The score is a collection of well rounded and extremely intelligent tracks that tell a complete story of their own, combining ambient, electronic, and even pop-rock elements that are beyond any dimension of measurable classification. It is a lavishly warm album, wrapped with diverse instrumentation, like vibraphone, strings, bass, acoustic drums and jazzy riffs, all driving forward the cinematic perception of a fantastic world existing in a world of animated film. There is just way too much in this latest Plaid release to be put into words, so I'll reserve to quoting Michael Arias from the liner notes: "[...] the music should have an analog, old-world feel, to compliment the nostalgic ambiance of the Treasure Town we see in the opening scenes. As we move into the second act, [...] old world analog will give way to newer, alien, synthetic forms: minimalist breakbeats and dissonant post-techno sounds. [...] This music will echo fragments heard over White's dreams of ocean paradise and apple trees." What's more exciting about Tekkon Kinkreet, is that unlike previous Plaid albums, it is not reprinted upon various media by Warp, Nothing, or Beat Records alike. It is a single release, falling slightly beneath the radar, on an Aniplex Inc., a Japanese imprint for Sony Music Entertainment (Japan). Not being marketed by Warp, this album may have slipped past a bunch of fans, unless they are loyal Plaid followers. It is still only available as an import [and sells on Amazon for $65 ???]. I highly recommend you listen to the album first (over and over), and then watch Tekkon Kinkreet - it will create an interesting experience of watching an exciting story, set to already beloved tunes [btw - the animation is amazing!]. Then pick up a Tekkon Kinkreet Remix project with interpretations by Prefuse 73, Vex'd, Derrick May, Mathew Jonson and many others. Recommended for fans of Kettel, The Flashbulb, Boards of Canada, Arovane, Wagon Christ, and The Future Sound of London.

http://www.myspace.com/plaid4thepeople | http://www.plaid.co.uk
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/animation

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Last Days - Sea (n5MD)

With the world financial markets currently in gloom, the US presidential elections around the corner [and no real positive outlook in sight], and the overall feeling of minor depression, not the least of which could be attributed to the oncoming colder weather, I begin to wonder if these _are_ the last of our days. But the truth is much more cut and dry. Even when everything implodes or blows up, the sun will keep burning, the time will keep passing, and life will go on. That doesn't prevent me from feeling melancholy and turn towards Scotland based Graham Richardson, who, with his two albums on n5MD, explores sadness through music. Using acoustic live instruments, like piano, xylophone, and guitar, Richardson draws out intelligent ambient soundscapes under his solo project name, Last Days. Sea is Richardson's debut album (n5MD, 2006), which he followed up with a sophomore release a year after, These Places Are Now Ruins (n5MD, 2007). The album is a thematic experience in which Richardson tells a tale of a "a person who sails out to sea, becomes lost halfway, and is eventually rescued." The music thus fluctuates in emotion between fear, dread, hope and peaceful acceptance - the common waves in a life cycle of a man, regardless which rough waters he chooses to navigate. Richardson samples the material using the 'lo-fi' approach, degrading the sound digitally when possible, bringing it closer to shoegaze rather than electronic. Richardson plans on releasing his third (almost finished) album, titled The Safety of The North, on n5MD, in the beginning of 2009. (see my Two and a Half Questions with Graham Richardson for more details). For fans of Eluvium, Deaf Center, Porn Sword Tobacco, Opitope, Kiln, and Hammock.

Two and a Half Questions with Graham Richardson

http://www.myspace.com/lastdaysmyspace | http://www.n5md.com/lastdays
http://www.myspace.com/n5mafia | http://www.n5md.com

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Fjordne - The Last 3 Days Of Time (Dynamophone Records)

Here's everything I love about modern classical and experimental ambient. Tiny sprinkles of noise and artifacts. Glitchy digital errors across strummed guitars. Chopped up echoes of piano. Timeless bliss... All making up some jigsaw puzzle of a melody that reveals itself only if you unfocus your mind, unplug the brain, and blur your vision. Let the sound saturate your thoughts, swirling forwards and back in time, seeking lost data across corrupted volumes of memories. Ah, there it is, that moment. Nope, gone again. Tokyo based Shunichiro Fujimoto's solo project under Fjordne moniker is a feat of subliminal time slippage consumed by the inevitable force of a black hole. Sourcing only acoustic instruments and some voice, Fujimoto digitally warps and processes the sounds into The Last 3 Days Of Time which gets picked up by a San Francisco based Dynamophone Records. And here's where owning a physical copy of this album really pays off: the 250 limited and numbered compact disk has a black lining (maybe that's what reminded me of black hole) and arrives in a small round tin container with a matted imprint of a bird sitting on a branch, revealing tiny mechanical gears beneath its feathers. A wind-up bird of time, approaching its last three days... And the clock ticks... It is no coincidence that the cover art resembles the theme behind The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by my _all_time_favorite_ Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. Fujimoto's music is inspired by this and other Murakami works (which you absolutely _must_ read if you read fiction at all!). Highly recommended for fans of Fennesz, Alvo Noto, Oval, Marsen Jules and Deaf Center. Also, make sure to pick up The Abbasi Brothers' Something Like Nostalgia, now that Dynamophone has officially released the album - you can get your Dynamophone copies at a growing n5MD store, which you can always leave with a cart full of goodies. [*UPDATE* - Looks like Mr. Fujimoto released his third album, Stories Aparat From The World, on Japanese based Ryoondo-Tea label in July of 2008]

http://www.myspace.com/fjordne
http://www.myspace.com/dynamophone | http://www.dynamophone.com

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Deru - Trying To Remember (Merck)

It's been almost two years since one of the leading IDM labels operating out of Florida, closed its doors. My dear Merck... I'm tired of sighing. Your impact on the music scene still resonates till this day - with new artists drawing inspirations from your past releases, and abandoned musicians still scrambling to find a new home for their future work. In the same light, I haven't heard anything from Deru since his 2004 release on Merck, Trying To Remember. He has, however, just finished his third album, Say Goodbye To Useless, which is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2009. About a year ago, I saw Benjamin Wynn play out live, at an outdoor festival, and his deep bass and punchy beats sent the vibrations far through the woods. Add to that some subliminal melodic samples with a glitch and swirling effects, and you got somewhat of a staple sound as spearheaded by the likes of Funckarma, Hecq, Kattoo, Gridlock, etc. (I can go on and on). One of my favorite tracks, is Deru's remix of Yasume's Rengoku, appearing on Colonized 01 (Colony Productions, 2007). Some very cinematic and futuristic moments there. His other treasured releases include the Pushing Air LP (Neo Ouija, 2003) and a remix compilation of his originals, released on a beautiful 10" vinyl, Pushing Soil (Delikatessen, 2004), with reworked tracks by Xela, Ginormous, Lo Grey Beam and Lusine. Deru returned the favor to Jeff McIlwain by remixing Auto Pilot on Lusine's Podgelism (Ghostly, 2007). Deru also appeared on Sutemos' Intelligent Toys 3 and even remixed KiloWatts' Two Days Off on Problems/Solved (AMM, 2006). Throughout his short discography, Wynn has managed to perfect his found sound. It is atmospheric. It is thumping. It is fractured. And once you hear it, you'll be able to recognize his touch and influence in others. Highly recommended. And I am anxiously awaiting his upcoming new album!

Two and a Half Questions with Deru

http://www.myspace.com/iamderu | http://www.meisderu.com
http://www.myspace.com/merckrecords | http://www.m3rck.net

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Argaman - My Little Forest (self)

It's a quiet forest morning. The birds are chirping. Somewhere a large animal calls out to its mate. Soon the horns sound. The kaleidoscopic circus marches in. The trees begin to bend as they extend into the skies, branching out in rainbow fractals. Everything compacts into a single energy and then explodes again. The psychedelia sets in. Itai Argaman has been working on his psybient album for over two years, no doubt studying the mind-bending sounds of Shpongle, Infected Mushroom, Shulman, Bluetech, Aes Dana, and Ott in the process. Inspired by the Israeli underground psychedelic music scene, Argaman uses classical and orchestral instrumentation to create floating, morphing, and curving sounds combining into psydub-psychill-psydm-and-psy-everything-else. Argaman's musicianship begins at his classical compositions that were promoted to cinematic scores, and continues to develop through continuous study of electronic sound. As I watched Argaman evolve in the last year, I saw him progress from a mere demo of a few tracks into a full polished album, My Little Forest. The slight dementia hiding beneath the covers of My Little Forest clearly reflects the collective insanity of modern society. The interlined thematic tracks reveal the story of both realities - the one perceived and the one beyond our senses. In which one do you live? This is a special treat, as this album is still unsigned to any label, but will be be out soon (follow Argaman via myspazz). Recommended if you enjoy the above mentioned names, or any artists from labels like Twisted, BNE, TIP, Phonokol, or Dragonfly.

http://www.myspace.com/argaman | http://www.itaiargaman.com

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Max Richter - 24 Postcards In Full Colour (130701 / FatCat)

Writing about such music is difficult. Especially when its beauty is escorted by concept. I could tell you about Touch Ringtones, and Max Richter's approach at creating twenty four miniature classical sketches designed to capture the moment and snap you in and out of your daily tasks. I could tell you about Richter's gallery installations where the pieces would be transmitted to the audiences mobile phones via SMS. I could tell you about the twenty four photographic images beautifully laid out on a CD insert (some revealing a reflection or a shadow of Max Richter himself), and on a mini website with a preview of the tracks. I could, perhaps, quote the German-born, modern classical composer, who explains the idea behind his fourth album in his own words: "thinking about how we listen to music now, with the range of options available, I wondered why it is that the ringtone medium has so far been treated as unfit for creative music..." But I won't do any of that. Instead, I simply invite you to listen and decide for yourself... Richter may have an impact on your perception of the intrusive personal wake up call of a gadget humanity should probably live without. I often picture Mozart slapping his forehead at the thought that his genius is echoed through a tiny speaker on a busy subway. Perhaps one day, on my morning commute, I will be disturbed by the alarming calm of Max Richter's peaceful piano playing through someone's Nextel. Perhaps... I doubt it... Until then, I highly recommend an excellent pair of headphones to enjoy this absolutely marvelous collection of sketches whose shortcoming is only their brief existence. Each track ranges between one minute and two, offering you only a short glimpse into a moment conveyed through geographically centered track names, personal photographic snapshots, and of course music itself. The instrumentation for the album is limited by Richter himself to a string quintet, acoustic guitar, and of course, a piano. The seasoning for this recipe includes dusty vinyl, fuzzy shortwave radio, and clicky scratchy samples, all processed by transistors and 16 track 2" tape. The pieces are designed to be a cluster of fragmented impressionistic vignettes, "stitched together to form a series of jump-cuts and foldbacks in time." Richter elaborates further: "because the piece is a collection of tones, where I have no control of the order, I made a structure that holds together by use of shared material – like a cloud of pieces, or a handful of confetti, or a constellation of fragments – to be navigated as you like..." 24 Postcards In Full Colour is released on Brighton Based FatCat Records imprint, 130701, dedicated to more instrumental albums. I highly recommend you also pickup (or revisit) Richter's previous hailed modern classical masterpieces, Memoryhouse, The Blue Notebooks, and Songs From before.

Two and a Half Questions with Max Richter

http://www.myspace.com/maxrichtermusic | http://www.maxrichter.com
http://www.myspace.com/fatcatrecords | http://www.fat-cat.co.uk

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Krafty Kuts - FabricLive. 34 (Fabric)

The FabricLive series has celebrated some really amazing output since its launch seven years ago. The monthly (!) compilation releases started in November 2001, by the London based nightclub Fabric. Alternating monthly between Fabric and FabricLive series, the club's offshoot label has covered a diversity of genres, from tech house to drum'n'bass, from dubstep to hip hop, from electro to disco. The mixed compilations feature an excellent roster of DJs and artists spearheading stylistic underground and commercial movements. Some of my most recent favorite FabricLive mixes feature Noisia, Caspa & Rusko, Spank Rock, High Contrast and DJ Craze. This 34th release (June 2007), is put together by Martin Randal, who goes by the name of Krafty Kuts. Randal is a Brighton (England) based electronic breakbeat producer and a DJ. In the last three years, he has has won the "Best DJ" title from the Breakspoll Awards. And this compilation does not under-perform. Krafty Kuts pulls out his crate favorites, like old-skool rap from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and funky electro from Milke. The production is top notch, the mixing is of course superb, and the sounds are super fresh. I especially love Krafty's layering of acappellas over other instrumentals to create new sounds and essentially remixes. Artists appearing on the mix include Tim Deluxe, DJ Icey, Plump DJ's, Madox, Aquasky, Freestylers, and Primal Scream among the many. I was last this excited about the FabricLive album when I reviewed The Herbaliser's contribution towards 26th volume. Perfect for a weekend drive. Recommended if you want to catch up on the latest breakbeat sound. And I'm sure I'll be raving about other FabricLive releases pretty soon.

http://www.myspace.com/djkraftykuts | http://www.superchargedmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/fabricfamily | http://www.fabriclondon.com

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IJO - (Untitled) LP (self)

Queuing up the self released (Untitled) LP by IJO on my iPod, I find that my collection is already sprinkled with tracks from this Lithuanian artist [currently residing in London]. A few of Audrius Vaitiekunas' tracks appear under my favorite Sutemos compilations: Draumar Um Kalt Sumar (Sutemos, 2006) and Intelligent Toys 4 (Sutemos, 2007). And I find that I have already rated those melodic IDM pieces high within an amazing collection of artists. But now I turn to check out IJO's more experimental work, that originally appeared on Plain Productions as a digital Untitled EP in 2006 (still available from this netlabel as a free download), later to be re-released by Vaitiekunas himself, with four more tracks from Quastic! Tracks (Envizagae, 2007), as a pressed 12" LP (this is a limited edition, and I've got mine right here!). IJO rips through the breaks, twisting up triggered percussion and acid bleeps into a whirlpool of distortion, that deserves to be analyzed under a microscope. The deep well of the brilliant Amen Break cutups still hasn't run dry (neither for me, nor for IJO), and when its mayhem detonates into jazzy and melodic interlude, my evil grin melts into a smile. The unheard (Unknown) track on this unsigned (Untitled) is simply unbelievable. It is the unmeasurable uncredible undarkness... er, sorry, got glitched in a groove there... I was trying to say that the (Unknown) track is the absolute highlight of the album for me. It is everything I ever wanted drill'n'bass to be. Evil grinds in the vain of DJ Hidden, lightning rhythmic patterns in the higher frequency, all phased and mashed up into the finest breakcore, as institutionalized by Venetian Snares, Squarepusher and Jega. Highly recommended.

http://www.myspace.com/theijo | http://www.plainaudio.com/ijo
http://www.myspace.com/plainaudio | http://www.plainaudio.com

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Squarepusher - Just A Souvenir (Warp)

With his twelfth album, Tom Jenkinson takes even a further departure from his staple Squarepuher sound of broken beats atop slapped bass and twisted triggers of the Amen Break. Warp's own store, Warpmart, categorizes the album as "Drum and Bass / Breakcore / Electronica", but I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth! (kind of misleading actually). Just A Souvenir is more in the realms of experimental rock and future jazz, with a touch of electronic treatment and a few very tasteful drills, where Jenkinson continues evolving (as a true musician should) in his experimentation with abstract accompaniment of acoustic instruments (mostly his custom built 6 string bass guitar once again) and drums that effortlessly morph between organic and digital. With Just A Souvenir, Jenkinson introduces an element of early garage rock, with vocoder and all, and reminds us once again of his amazing instrumentalist skills. First thing's first - I like it! And after only a few listens, the melodies come back haunting me later during the day. A true sign that I will return to the album! Just A Souvenir opens up with a track titled, Star Time 2 (makes you wonder about its first part) with a fun funky synth/clavichord melody and light beats. From then on Squarepusher moves into improvisational, jazzy, and effected bass slaps over barely comprehensible vocoder blurbs. All of it is truly of psychedelic nature with sparking notes in a kaleidoscope of white, red, green, blue and yellow. On his site, Jenkinson explains that "this album started as a daydream about watching a crazy, beautiful rock band play an ultra-gig." He then goes on describing his fluorescent trip which included an Eskimo on the drums and a classical guitar player that could speed up and slow down the time in his vicinity. I recommend you read up on on Tom's blurred delirium before embarking on this trip. Then bathe yourself in this album which is the interpretation of Jenkinson's memory of the daydream which he held on to as a souvenir. Running at (only) 45 minutes long, Just A Souvenir picks up where Hello Everything left off, becoming more organic with every track. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you'll enjoy this rubber band trip through time. Only the way Squarepusher could. Just A Souvenir hits the streets on October 27th (2008), and is currently available as a digital download (in FLAC as well) from bleep dot com.

http://www.myspace.com/akais5000 | http://www.squarepusher.net
http://www.myspace.com/warprecords | http://www.warprecords.com
http://www.warpmart.com | http://www.bleep.com

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Anders Ilar - Sworn (Level)

Anders Ilar comes back with an intelligent minimal techno album, full of ambient and glitch elements that compliment the ongoing groove in every single way. And I guess it wouldn't be fair to file Sworn under minimal techno. After all, the only stylistic hint at that category is its four-four beat, and not on every track. The rest of the music is as close to techno as was The Last Resort by Trentemøller (I mean that in a good way). And I don't just accidentally mention that name. The production and experimental IDM touch, which Anders Ilar is so proficient at, indeed reminds me of Trentemøller's excellent work. And it shouldn't be a surprise. The Swedish producer has considerable output behind him on many excellent labels, such as Shitkatapult, Audio.nl, the dearly missed Merck, and its offshoot, Narita. The latter mentioned label survived its parent only by a year and a half, announcing the news that during late summer of this year (2008), it will release its last compilation, sadly titled Terminal (although it also fits within Narita's nomenclature relating to the Tokyo airport). Meanwhile, its last release this past April was none other then a collaboration between Anders Ilar and Fredrik Hedvall, titled Melt. Ilar's 2006 eight-track LP on Merck, Ludwijka, and its extended release in 2007 on Shitkatapult, Ludwijka - Extended Visit, should serve as an excellent base and a great predecessor to Sworn. I usually begin my Ilar playlist with the former and end it with the latter, and I recommend you do the same. This is a great [re]discovery! An absolute must for fans of Trentemøller, Minilougue, Booka Shade, Gui Boratto as well as Deaf Center, Yagya, and Rod Modell alike.

Two and a Half Questions with Anders Ilar

http://www.myspace.com/andersilar | http://www.pinesky.com
http://www.myspace.com/levelrecordsduesseldorf | http://www.level-records.com

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The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination - I Was Young And I Needed The Money (Ninja Tune)

Squarepusher recently announced a new upcoming album, titled Just A Souvenir (out on Warp on October 27th, of 2008 - and already available via digital download on bleep). But on my first preview of the album, Tom Jenkinson seems to drift even further away from his original innovative broken beats and drill'n'bass, so dominated by the late 90s. Personally, I always applaud the efforts of an evolving artist, and Squarepusher deserves a whole separate hailing review (coming up next). But being nostalgic for that jazzy breaky genre, I dust off a copy of an overlooked album by Florian Schmitt, which cries out to be back in my rotations. Schmitt recorded only a single album for Ninja Tune back in 1998 under the lengthy pseudonym, The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination. He also did a bunch of remixes later under Clifford Gilberto and his real name. But that was a decade ago, and since then, he's been pretty quiet. Nevertheless, the sound of his debut album, I Was Young And I Needed The Money, is fresh and upbeat, after all these years. I did not begin this write up with Jenkinson incidentally, though. Fans of Squarepusher, Amon Tobin, Cinematic Orchestra, µ-Ziq, and The Flashbulb will be absolutely delighted to hear the Schmitt's tracks for the first time, if they somehow missed the album when it first hit the streets. The sound fluctuates between melodic drum'n'bass (closer to a drilling jungle though, then a straight beat) and a jazzy trip-hoppy rhythms with Latin-flavored samples. The Gilberto reference in Schmitt's alias reveals his Brazilian jazz influence... maybe... His biography on Ninja Tune's site claims that he's "the unknown lovechild of Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz", but Schmitt brings to the table much more than the musical genius of aforementioned influential bossa nova artists. Guaranteed to liven up your mood and get you to bop your head. And seriously, if you haven't heard this one, get it! Too many favorite tracks on that one to list.

http://www.ninjatune.net/gilberto | http://www.ninjatune.net

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One Starving Day - Broken Wings Lead Arms to the Sun (Planaria/KNVBI)

The record patiently awaits its turn among the large pile of music. Finally it is allowed to play, to shine, to sing, and to scream in its beautiful agony. It's like this: if you are a drooling mischievous apocalyptic follower of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mono, as well as Pelican, Neurosis, and Isis, then you absolutely _must_ get this album. One Starving Day is a group of Italian musicians, with a previous experience in some hardcore bands, but what they whip up on their debut album, Broken Wings Lead Arms to the Sun, is beyond metal, beyond screamo and post-nu-post-rock. It is a blend of very melodic and voluptuous swells of unfolding desperation which erupts into the mass of lava... flowing... slowly... All you can do is just stand there, agape, watching it helplessly wash over your ears, consuming everything in its path. Take the intimate lyrics on my favorite track on the album, Leave: "on these tears / lay down, and wait / for becoming / an abandon / to soothe / all your fears / a pure heart / to soothe / and leave". Into this deadly cocktail, throw in the spacey 70s synth sweeps, raw violin screeches, and explosive (excellent) drumming. And I did mention the screamed vocals, right? That may sound discouraging to some listeners (or readers), but it works _very_ well for One Starving Day, and is actually more than welcomed by yours truly (surprise!). The CD was released on Washington DC based Planaria Recordings, and then repressed on a colored 12" vinyl with two extra unreleased tracks on an accompanying 7" by KNVBI Records. Whether you're a collector or not, this record must be in your library for the likes of the above mentioned bands.

http://www.myspace.com/onestarvingday | http://www.onestarvingday.com
http://www.myspace.com/planaria | http://www.planariainc.com
http://www.myspace.com/knvbirecords | http://www.knvbirecords.com

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last.fm artist and label cloud mentioned in the above post:
Arvo Pärt, Phillip Glass, Nico Muhly, Max Richter, John Cage, Goldmund, Deaf Center, Sylvain Chauveau, Library Tapes, Peter Broderick, Marsen Jules, Ryuuichi Sakamoto, Hauschka, Plaid, Black Dog, Andy Turner, Ed Handley, Prefuse 73, Vex'd, Derrick May, Mathew Jonson, Kettel, The Flashbulb, Boards of Canada, Arovane, Wagon Christ, The Future Sound of London, Graham Richardson, Last Days, Plaid, Eluvium, Deaf Center, Porn Sword Tobacco, Opitope, Kiln, Hammock, Fjordne, Fennesz, Alvo Noto, Oval, Marsen Jules, The Abbasi Brothers, Deaf Center, Deru, Funckarma, Hecq, Kattoo, Gridlock, Xela, Ginormous, Lusine, Lusine ICL, KiloWatts, argaman, Shpongle, Infected Mushroom, Shulman, Bluetech, Aes Dana, Ott, Max Richter, Krafty Kuts, Noisia, Caspa & Rusko, Spank Rock, High Contrast, DJ Craze, Tim Deluxe, DJ Icey, Plump DJ's, Madox, Aquasky, Freestylers, Primal Scream, The Herbaliser, IJO, DJ Hidden, Venetian Snares, Squarepusher, Jega, Anders Ilar, Trentemøller, fredrik hedvall, Minilougue, Booka Shade, Gui Boratto, Deaf Center, Yagya, Rod Modell, Tom Jenkinson, The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination, Clifford Gilberto, Squarepusher, Amon Tobin, Cinematic Orchestra, µ-Ziq, One Starving Day, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono, Pelican, Neurosis, Isis, FATCAT, Karaoke Kalk, Warp, Nothing, Beat Records, n5MD, dynamophone, merck, Neo Ouija, Sutemos, Ghostly International, Twisted, BNE, Tip, Phonokol, Dragonfly, Plain, Shitkatapult, Ninja Tune, Jacaszek, Ólafur Arnalds, Peter Broderick, Alva Noto, Richard Chartier, iTAL tEK

Jungle-tastic on Void radio this time. Loads of Planet Mu and Rephlex crazy mental core for your enjoyment :)

01. Ben Westbeech and Die 'Get Closer (Rockers Remix)' [Brownswood Recordings]
02. Shitmat 'Badman Ballad' [Planet Mu]
03. Tipper 'Sort Code' [Higher Ground]
04. AFX 'Mangle 11 (Circuit Bent V.I.P. Mix)' [Rephlex]
05. Braintax 'Speak Your Mind' [Low Life Records]
06. M.I.A. 'Paper Plane (DFA Remix)' [Interscope]
07. Jega 'Manic Minor' [Planet Mu]
08. Aphex Twin 'Bucephalus Bouncing Ball' [Warp]
09. Lawgivers 'Passion (Ils Remix)' [Botchit and Scarper]
10. Point Blank 'Eternally (µ-Ziq Remix)' [Planet Mu]
11. Sabres Of Paradise 'Tow Truck (Depth Charge Remix)' [Warp]
12. Brothomstates 'Adozenaday' [Warp]
13. Burial 'U Hurt Me' [Plant Mu]
14. Equinox 'Acid Rain VIP' [Plant Mu]
15. Loefah 'Mud V.I.P.' [Planet Mu]
16. Equinox 'Do U Understand Me' [Planet Mu]
17. PP Roy ' In At The Beep End' [Rephlex]
18. Darqwan 'Raisin Kane' [Passenger]
19. Bug And Daddy Freddy 'Run The Place Red (AFX Mix)' [Men]
20. Tipper 'Led Down (Radioactive Man Mix)' [Higher Ground]
21. Jega 'Musical Chairs' [Planet Mu]
22. Nathan Fake 'Grandfathered' [Border Community]
23. Verve 'She's A Superstar' [Hut]

Download

Wow... It's August. Again... How did that happen? And I was just busy compiling my Best of 2008 [so far...] list. Oh well. Here's a great installment of Rotations with Two and a Half Questions with iTAL tEK, Kettel, Jacaszek, Kangding Ray, Richard Chartier, Peter Broderick, Hecq and more!!! For up-to-date reviews, be sure to subscribe to reviews feed!

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iTAL tEK - Cyclical (Planet Mu)

OK, I was going to de-capitalize the artist and album name appropriately, but it screws up my nice formatting. I'm sure that Alan Myson won't mind. Hailing out of Brighton (UK), this is Myson's first full length release. There were a couple of 12" back in 2007 various labels, plus a few file releases here and there, but that's all. I first came across iTAL tEK on 10 Tons Heavy compilation, followed by 200, and now Mary Anne Hobbs drops his tune on her Evangeline - all released on Planet Mu. The above appearances should lovingly pigeonhole Myson's music into a dubstep genre. Through eleven tracks, Myson explores all facets of the uprising style, from dark to melodic, and from experimental to dance-floor. As an album, it is a very involved listening experience, begging to be returned to over and over to uncover its multi-layered production that will satisfy the break-,IDM-,and bass-heads alike. In the recent years, dubstep has been a hit or miss for me. I mostly end up tossing away records that exploit the genre's popularity by applying the tiring old formula - sample this here, apply the syncopated beat there, drop in the wobbling bass, and repeat. The volume of current underground output reminds me of the days when gabber swept Rotterdam in the mid-90s: anything was up for grabs as long as it employed the squirrely vocals and distorted 909 kicks spun above 150bpm. Only the gems outlast the hype to survive through history for another rotation. Myson stands among the few artists that integrate and employ the genre's characteristics with an intelligent design, bringing dubstep closer to the electronica for listeners, and gaining a permanent presence on my shelves of classic albums. That being said, Planet Mu is responsible for pushing the boundaries of electronic evolution, keeping up with the trends and exciting our neurons. It is with a full support of such an established label, among the many independent and progressive smaller counterparts, that the musicians and fans alike, will benefit for the years to come. Thanks, Mike [ed. Paradinas]! Keep it rolling. My good friend, Rob Booth, over at Electronic Explorations, is also a big fan. He recently hosted Ital Tek's Exclusive Mix with a couple of unreleased tracks - it's a must. Recommended for fans of Boxcutter, Pinch, Vex'd, The Gasman, and Distance.

http://www.myspace.com/italtekmusic | http://www.planet-mu.com/artists/italtek
http://www.myspace.com/childrenofmu | http://www.planet-mu.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Ital Tek

I placed you somewhere between dubstep and IDM - how would you describe your music?
I'm really bad at this question usually! I think that's a fair description though. I've tried to create a middle ground in my records between bass heavy music that works really loud in a club but also so you can listen to it at home/in the car/walking about etc. I think albums are really important as whole pieces rather than just collections of tracks and so I wanted to make one that people would want to listen to all the way through. I love bass music/dubstep but sometimes I want to listen to something with a nice melody aswell. I try to tick both the boxes. Old electronica - Aphex, Muziq and then the sort of textures and soundscapes that bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead make have had a big influence on the way I go about making music.

Do you feel that you have found your own unique voice in your compositions?
I don't know about having created a unique voice, I'd say it's pretty hard to be creating anything unique. I just enjoy sitting for hours making something I want to listen to, and something that excites me.

Anything fun on the horizon? Live shows? Collaborations?
There are a couple of collaborations that I had been putting off whilst finishing my album so hopefully they will get sorted now. I'm sure there will be something new out later this year, there's lots of things I'm working on at the moment. Aside from writing I'm doing some more festivals for the rest of the summer and then more gigs around and about most weekends after that.

What's the story about iTAL tEK capitalization?
The capitalisation thing was just how someone wrote it a few years ago on a flyer and then it kind of stuck with some other people doing it, and it going on the records like that etc. I don't mind how people want to write it. I've told some people who've asked that it's because of a sponsership deal with iTUNES... I think they believed me.

http://www.myspace.com/italtekmusic | http://www.planet-mu.com/artists/italtek

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Kettel - Myam James Part 1 (Sending Orbs)

Reimer Eising, producing under the name of Kettel, is no stranger to the IDM scene. Since 2001, Eising has vigorously released a dozen EPs and nine full length albums on a handful of respectable labels, such as Planet Mu, Neo Ouija, DUB, merck, Kracfive, and his home label (which he co-runs with his brother, Wouter Eising and Kristian Peters), Sending Orbs. His last album, Myam James Part 1 was originally scheduled to be an EP, but Eising's onslaught of his mind-to-music-stream has borne not one, but two albums in the Myam James series. Based out of Groningen, The Netherlands, Eising is a classically trained musician, growing up playing piano since he was five years old. His love for Bach is clearly evident through complex, mathematical, and harmonic progressions in the acid driven, micro programmed, and organically acoustic pieces. From the album page on Sending Orbs: "Kettel manages to squeeze uplifting, warm, cheerful and enjoyable music out of his kettle and pottery factory, which is sad, melancholic and sensitive at the same time." The tracks on Part 1 are as intelligent as Inteligent Dance Music can be, with excellent production, masterful effect control, and instantly memorable melodies. Towards the end of the album, the track My Dogan (from the album My Dogan, on Sending Orbs [2006]), gets a treatment by Phoenecia. We also get an excellent remix from Secede, of another track, Church. Highly recommended if you like Aphex Twin, The Flashbulb, Jega, Barry Lynn and Wisp.

http://www.myspace.com/captainkettel | http://www.kettelmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/sendingorbs | http://www.sendingorbs.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Kettel

What do you imagine it would be like to hear Bach playing the organ for the first time in church?
What I have read about Bachs improvisational skills on organ, is that it was even better than his composed work. I don't know who said it, I have no source, but it's a famous quote so it may bear some kind truth. I want to believe it does, at least. I can't even imagine improvising a fugue, because for me it seems you have to have 4 different brains to do so. It is known that Bach improvised perfect fugues. What can I say? I know I would love it, I know it would be an amazing and miraculous thing.. I also know I'm not good enough at English to express the right superlatives at the right time in this matter. I'm such a great Bach-lover, I would seriously consider giving up an organ (HA!) to hear him improvise on it!

How much of your music is mathematical in nature?
Hard one. I don't go around calculating anything when I write music, but I think when a melody is "good" it has some kind of mathematical symmetry or 'truth'. If one is able to do it -have the scientific basis and knowledge to do so- can 'prove a melody'. If not equipped with math skills (like me, by the way), there is this way in which you can 'feel' good melodies go round. It's all about consistency I think when it comes to good music. Things have to sound intentional and consistent. I certainly believe that music is math in some way. I'm not sure if I want to find out how so.

How much do you participate in running of the label [Sending Orbs], and which tasks do you usually pick up?
It has always been my brother Wouter and my friend Kristian's label. My involvement in it is on and off. I'm usually part of the process of contemplating decisions tho.. Basically just someone that is not officially affiliated, but in the loop. Tasks.. I have helped out working the shop, done setting up some labelnights.

Do you recall the first electronic release that made you want to produce this kind of music?
I think it was a mixtape ridiculously called "Pfffff" my brother made for me with various electronic tracks on it that initially got me interested. Then I picked up a lot of Mouse On Mars and mid-90's Plaid, Autechre and Aphex. It wasn't really 1 release that turned the wheel for me, but I remember listening to Plaid's Not For Threes and wishing I made it. (But I kind of still do that). If you put a knife to my throat for this question I'd say Mouse on Mars was the first electronic love i had. Iahora Tahiti is still one of my most dear albums in the world.

I know that you're a 303-fiend, do you own a couple of teebees; and what other fun toys can we find in your studio?
I work the most basic and simplistic setup thinkable by a badger. All my music is based upon me playing keyboard; whether it's a synth or a 303. That is really the basis of everything I do; I can't make music if I can't jam/play. I find hardware toys hard to get into most of the times, merely because I think i find my roots in pianoplay; give me a few keys and I'm happy. But of course hardware synths can sound amazing, and they are amazing, and I'm even really into sound toys, I just don't own them. Let's just say I've never really gotten into knobtwiddling and experimenting with sounds. So far I've always found enough satisfaction and challenge in trying to write beautiful melodies. Different approach, I guess.

Who is Myam James and when are we going to hear Part 2?
Myam James is a viking a once dreamt of, throwing little blue balls at me. Part 2 is coming up, I'm actually working on it right now. It's supposed to come out in fall, so it will. It's a different album than Part 1; it's gonna have some more chilled out, soundtrackstyle, classical moments among more Myam1 acid stuff. That's the way it was all planend out and I still feel comfortable sticking to it. Showing a few different musical sides of myself; that's why it was a series in the first place. An album is always like a summary of the past year.

How different are your live shows from the album tracks?
Quite. They have been at least. The last year I have been doing a few Myam James tracks live, actually most of the Myam James tracks started as live tracks. But also during the releases of ambient albums my livesets would always been a little more upbeat and party, I think I just enjoy that the most myself.

Any memorable moments from your recent North American tour?
A lot. One memorable moment is this. We (Flashbulb, me, and a ..guest) had just travelled a long distance from Montana to Washington, somewhere. Note that during my tour the European Soccer Championships were on, and me being a big (Holland) soccerfan, upon arrival in the motel I instantly downloaded the match (that was already played back home, time difference). While I was getting loaded with Rolling Rock waiting till the download to finish, the Flashbulb was practicing his set and played some awesome guitar. I watched the match, we beat France 4-1 and I caused a beep in Flasbulbs ear screaming and yelling. By the time it finished I was nothing more or less than a drunken dutchman, far away from home, celebrating a party that was originally already over. Anyway, that night we took off to the festival to check out what it was like. It was already dark and the festival was up on a high mountain. Somehow we took a few detours, and although we were told the roads were gonna be unpaved and steep, the roads we drove on that night were life-threatening. We even were caught up in stream of sliding rocks that made it's way into the ravine, our brave SUV and SUV-driver (Benn) fighting with it. Anyway, all I can say is I'm glad I was drunk when that happened.

http://www.myspace.com/captainkettel | http://www.kettelmusic.com

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Rudi Arapahoe - Echoes From One to Another (symbolic interaction)

As Eve Basilides opens up with strumming of the harp, a distant lo-fi hiss transposes you into a surreal world of shadows and broken dreams. By the time Kaithlin Howard's voice breaks through the reverb and lightly touched piano chords I begin to wonder if the imagery is indeed from my long lost memory. Rudi Arapahoe's spellbinding soundscapes accompany my daydreams into a world of modern classical and magical realism. "A strange and beautiful tale, voiced across the windswept plains and forests of purgatory." Here I give into another temptation to repeat the Echoes From One To Another poem: "In a dream I am standing / At the entrance to a forest / Here there are constructed / Numberless arches that radiate light / When I step through them at night / My body floats gently in the air / At this precise moment / When I am on the cusp of sleep / My shadow vanishes / And with it my weight." Why bother attempting to even describe such beautiful and timeless experience? Rudi Arapahoe has captured it all. As if the music wasn't enough, the photographs included in the packaging perfectly echo the artist's message via the visual senses. Echoes From one To Another definitely reminds me of Max Richter, especially The Blue Notebooks. It's mostly because of the melancholic piano, cinematic strings, and of beautiful spoken word. And when being compared to Max Richter was a bad thing? I hope Arapahoe's future is bright with creating mystical soundtracks to a world that we carve out of this visible reality. For when I close my eyes, it rapidly vanishes. And only music remains.

http://www.myspace.com/rudiarapahoe
http://www.myspace.com/symbolicinteraction | http://www.symbolicinteraction.net

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Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist (Planet Mu)

We can always count on Aaron Funk to punish us at least once a year. If you're not familiar with Venetian Snares, it's time for you to open up that hole and crawl out. Seriously. Winnipeg (Canada) based Funk is a prolific champion of the edgiest of genres - from modern-classical orchestral arrangements violated with breakcore to noisy IDM sprinkled with clicks and cuts. Among the collection of labels, he has managed to span some of my favorites - Zod, Distort, Sublight, Hymen and of course, Planet Mu. Detrimentalist is Funk's twentieth (!!!) album, in which he steps away from classical themes sampled and revisited in My Downfall (Planet Mu, 2007), and brings back the early drum'n'bass loops only the way Venetian Snares can. Planet Mu describes the release as "Venetian Snares' 332nd official studio album of disgusting ejacutronic rave horn." After a couple of rotations the intelligent design behind complex time signatures stands out from the imitators' attempts at making [whatever]-core simply for the sake of it. The first two tracks, Gentleman and Koonut-Kaliffee set the tone for the entire album, and the grind never stops. The cover art is sprinkled with an array of neon green aliens, robots, skulls, wingdings, guns, cassettes, and other demented and detrimental paraphernalia. And ducks. My favorite track is Eurocore MVP with ragga vocal samples, Funk's staple bass rips, drilling Amen breaks and an obligatory snare rush. This is breakcore at its finest. Keep it coming, Funk... We're listening... For similar styles, check out Bong-Ra, Shitmat, end.user, and my new favorite, Igorrr.

http://www.myspace.com/venetiansnares | http://www.venetiansnares.com
http://www.myspace.com/childrenofmu | http://www.planet-mu.com

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Jacaszek - Treny (Miasmah / Gusstaff )

Gusstaff is a small independent label based in Poland, which has already released two previous albums by Michal Jacaszek. Jacaszek's third full length album, Treny, is also picked up by Erik Skodvin's Miasmah. The latter mentioned label is quickly gaining recognition among the ambient and modern classical connoisseurs with CD releases (Miasmah started out as a net label) from great artists like Encre, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Elegi and now Jacaszek. Looks like Miasmah has also picked up Jasper TX for his upcoming July release, Black Sleep, but more on that later... Treny is a modern classical marvel that immediately jumps to the top of my favorites for this year. And big thanks to all my readers who recommended it as Best of 2008 So Far in their submitted lists. Patiently paced melodies evolve in the hands of skillful violinist Stefan Wesolowski and cellist Ania Smiszek-Wesolowska [sounds like the two are a couple ;) ]. The reverb treated organic acoustics are complimented with piano phrases and atmospheric electronic treatments by Jacaszek. Through out the tracks, Maja Sieminska's voice glides within the hazy soundscapes like an echo of awakened ghost. My good friend Paul observes, "I listen and feel I have lost everything..." My immediate impression brings back that majestic moment of discovering an album that will stay with you through sweet and dark moments alike. Based out of Gdansk, Poland, Jacaszek is a profound manipulator of electro-acoustic sounds and fits right along my favorites like Dictaphone, Porn Sword Tobacco, Marsen Jules, Zbigniew Preisner and of course Deaf Center. Highly recommended.

http://www.myspace.com/jacaszek | http://www.jacaszek.com
http://www.myspace.com/miasmah | http://www.miasmah.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Michal Jacaszek

What inspired you to manipulate acoustic recordings into a composition of its own?
Acoustic sounds themselves are very inspiring. In opposite to most of synthetic sources they have a potential to be extended, manipulated, and after all they still preserve their rich lively nature. For me as a producer working with digital media , this is very secure and comfortable situation.

Tell us more about your own musical language?
I hope I have one. I want my music to be soft but hardly touching, monotonic but keeping you awake, filled with emotions but controlled, ... not too narrative neither too cinematic - but still atmospheric... A bit like with a prayer - I like repetitions, trance mood. If I really have my own aesthetics, I want it to be in constant evolution...

Is there a sad story behind your soundtrack?
"Treny" means "laments" in ancient Polish vocabulary. This is also a title of collection of elegiac poems written by a Polish renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski. These pieces have really strong tension, they are deeply touching and they were written after the death of poet's little daughter. Her name was Orszula - and it is also a title of one of my tracks. Other tracks' names are "rhythm is immortality", "grief", "death calm" etc. So definitely you can find some sad motifs behind my album.I am fascinated with this part of human emotions, although I have a quite happy life. Passing , vanishing, ending, - these things inspire me strongly.

http://www.myspace.com/jacaszek | http://www.jacaszek.com

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Portishead - Third (Island / Mercury)

It's been almost 11 years since Portishead released their last self-titled album (I'm not counting Roseland NYC Live). The three member group of Adrian Utley, Geoff Barrow and more prominent Beth Gibbons have been often credited with making the trip hop genre more mainstream. Originating out of Bristol, UK, Portishead introduced their hometown sound to the commercial radio waves in 1994 with Dummy. With downtempo hip-hop beats, a touch of turntablism, and Gibbons' staple vocals, Portishead instantly created their own style and with that came a vast following. It's no wonder then, that when appropriately titled Third album hit the shelves, it was snatched with a hunger. Prior to the album's street date it was released on last.fm and attracted over 327,000 listeners within 24 hours. On Third, Portishead experiments in a darker territory, a bit brooding and at times almost industrial in nature, while rewarding the listener with a familiar voice. There are many unforgettable moments on the album when you find yourself go "what" and "nice". Perhaps there is not much revolutionary on Third for some, and they may not feel justified for the waiting period. Nevertheless you can't just let it slip by. Portishead remains a favorite and after consecutive rotations, Third climbs to the my list of "Best of 2008 so far..." I still love and play the first two albums. [Gibbons also released a solo album titled Candy Says in 2003]. Favorite tracks: Plastic and Machine Gun.

http://www.myspace.com/portisheadalbum3 | http://www.portishead.co.uk

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Kangding Ray - Automne Fold (raster-noton)

An amazing array of releases from Raster-Noton can drain any serious collector's wallet. My latest search includes the twelve super rare twenty-minute monthly releases titled 20' to 2000, and I highly doubt that I'll be able to score it for anything less than a thousand bucks. Oh well... So instead I'll give myself a present of Kangding Ray's sophomore release, Automne Fold. And the album more than satisfies my experimental, organic, and dark rhythmic cravings. Kangding Ray is an alias of Berlin based David Letellier who creates synthetic, glitchy, and yet very musical compositions of analog tones, micro-programmed beats, and digital errors. Letellier's musical experience includes being a guitarist and a drummer for a band with rock and jazz influences. Stacking against his electronic music design is his diploma in architecture - perhaps Letellier erects and demolishes soundscapes in the same way. The sound of Kangding Ray is not as minimal as the usual roster of Raster-Noton (e.g. CoH, Ø, and the label owner, Carsten Nicolai). It is still experimental, super intelligent, yet at the same time very listenable - I found Alva Noto's Xerrox Vol. 1 conceptually very fascinating, but for some reason the album did not remain in my rotations. Kangding Ray, on the other hand, seems to fit more along his contemporaries, like Hecq, Subheim, Kattoo and Murcof. There are even lyrics in some of the "songs". Perhaps Automne Fold will create a gateway into the label's catalogue for listeners with a less sensitive ear. Be sure to pick up Kangding Ray's 2006 release on Raster-Noton, titled Stabil. Highly recommended. Makes my Best of 2008 list so far...

http://www.myspace.com/kangdingray | http://www.kangdingray.com
http://www.raster-noton.net

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Two and a Half Questions with Kangding Ray

What is your alias "Kangding Ray" mean?
Nothing really, kangding is a small town in the tibetan region of sichuan in china, where i went just before finishing my first album. Later i heard that it's also a famous traditional chinese song.

What role does your education in architecture play when you construct soundscapes?
A lot of people ask me this question, due to my background, but I still don't have a definitive answer to it. There are of course some links, in terms of construction or textures, or the idea of music "spacialisation", the fields explored by pioneers like Pierre Henry or Stockhausen. For me, one of the most interesting approach is probably the treatment of music composition and architecture through the same abstract patterns, mathematic rules, one of the finest example being the collaboration of Xenakis and LeCorbusier for the "poème électronique". But at the end, music stays music, it's about sound and emotions.

What is your favorite piece of studio equipment?
A portable digital recorder, that i use to record anything that i find interesting.

http://www.myspace.com/kangdingray | http://www.kangdingray.com

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The Herbaliser - Same As It Never Was (Studio !K7)

So what exactly prompted The Herbaliser to release Same As It Never Was on the infamous Studio !K7? After all, their deep discography is tied almost exclusively to Ninja Tune [if anyone knows the answer, drop me a line]. Since 1995, Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry have released five studio albums and two live mixes on Fabric (see my previous review of Fabric.26), not to mention a dozen singles, appearances and remixes. The group has also grown from an original duo into a full 5-piece band - you have to check out the amazing Session One album (Department H., 2000). Same As It Never Was indeed sounds a bit more funky, as the group is attempting to trace the hip-hop roots and bring back the elements of jazz, r&b, and soul. This time they are also joined by the London based "22-year soul diva" Jessica Darling - who lays her lovely voice so smoothly over the grooves - really brings back the fun of the 70s. The track Can't Help This Feeling will validate any doubts. NYC based Jean Grae (aka What? What?) returns with an excellent track, Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale) previously collaborating with The Herbaliser on Take London (Ninja Tune, 2005). Revitalizing the genre, The Herbaliser sparks a wave of nu-soul, if you will, across the continent. It would be a pleasure to watch them live. My typical artist cloud for The Herbaliser would include DJ Food, The Cinematic Orchestra, Funki Porcini, DJ Krush and Up, Bustle and Out.

http://www.myspace.com/theherbz | http://www.herbaliser.com
http://www.myspace.com/k7records | http://www.k7.com

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Nostalgia 77 - Everything Under The Sun (Tru Thoughts / Ubiquity)

Listening to Birghton (UK) based Benedic Lamdin's solo project under Nostalgia 77 alias I am reminded once again of his light, playful, and jazzy compositions. The last album I recall hearing was Songs For my Funeral, which I remember being more downtempo with a sprinkle of breaks bordering future jazz. One of those great tracks to compliment a chillout compilation (as a matter of fact, there was a double disk comp, Chilled Beats Sessions, where Nostalgia 77 appeared alongside Skalpel, The Cinematic Orchestra, Bonobo, Blockhead, Daedelus, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Prefuse 73 and many, many others [Sessions, 2005] ). Then there is, of course, The Nostalgia 77 Octet with a great Weapons Of Jazz Destruction release on Tru Thoughts last year. The latter deserves a separate review, but I'll briefly mention that the octet is formed from the Royal Academy of Jazz graduates and NYJO Alumni. For his sixth full length album (including the afore mentioned live project), Lamdin gathers his group of talented jazz musicians to walk up and down the modal scale with ease. Lizzy Parks returns with her lovely voice adding a perfect element to an already wonderful selection of songs. "I wanted to continue developing the ideas I've explored in the other records, to take the emotional moods that are there and to vocalize them. I wanted to write lyrics that reflected them," says Lamden. I personally applaud and enjoy following the artists that continue to not only reinvent themselves, but perfect their musical composition. It seems that many musicians, after consecutive successful releases want something more and end up turning to the roots of live, improvisational, or organic sound - I'm thinking here of The Herbaliser, The Landau Orchestra, and even Amon Tobin. The 2008 double-disk compilation of Nostalgia 77's One Offs, Remixes & B-Sides is a must for any serious catalog collector.

http://www.myspace.com/nostalgia77 | http://www.nostalgia77.com
http://www.myspace.com/truthoughtsrecords | http://www.tru-thoughts.co.uk

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William Basinski And Richard Chartier - Untitled 1-3 (LINE)

LINE is a label of another breed and dimension. Created by Richard Chartier in 2000 under the 12k umbrella, LINE publishes experimental and abstract installation compositions by sound artists exploring contemporary digital minimalism. LINE has a nice roster of signal processing and deconstructing composers, including Alva Noto, Taylor Deupree, Vend and Asmus Tietchens. For the latest limited 2008 release, LINE has re-issued a 2004 acclaimed work by Richard Chartier and William Basinski, Untitled 1-3, first appearing on Japanese label Spekk. The two original Untitled tracks are remastered by Taylor Deupree and complimented by two new works - Untitled 3 and its Reprise. The initial edition of 1300 remained on the market for only two months before completely selling out. Basinski has been working on experimental soundscapes for over twenty five years. His installations and collaborations with filmmaker, James Elaine, have received international exposure and acclaim. Chartier has been producing experimental and minimal work that "explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, and the act of listening." His sound works reached international exhibits and digital art/music festivals. Both musicians have appeared on Olaf Bender and Carsten Nicolai's hailed German label, Raster-Noton. In this aural documentary of another planet's lifeform, Basinski incorporates tape loops and elements from an eight voice polyphonic analog synthesizer from 1982, Voyetra-8. Chartier adds thick slabs of frequencies with elements from various sound installations. The piece is dark, haunting, and brooding, with alien feathered beings chirping in the background. Although the ambiance of composition is everlasting, the feeling of uneasiness remains with you well after you've downloaded these instructions into your brain. Untitled 2, at 35 minutes alone, is your guide for examining the album's abstract expressionist artwork by Chartier himself. Bring this album with you while visiting your local contemporary museum, select a dark, minimal, and abstract piece, and dissolve for a half an hour into the essence of being. You will find it... there...

http://www.myspace.com/richardchartier | http://www.3particles.com
http://www.myspace.com/12kline | http://www.12k.com/line

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Two and a Half Questions with Richard Chartier

Untitled 1-3 is a dark album, would you agree? What are the images that the soundscapes paint for you when you close your eyes?
i think the "untitled1" is a bit dark but not necessarily the rest of the works. william described the first piece as very evocative of dark sky with swirling birds. i think that piece at the same time has moments of brightness.

What is the current state of digital minimalism as an art form?
oh i am not sure i can make any statements about that. i can say i hear less and less that i enjoy. there is a lot of minimalism for minimalism's sake that feels lacking in depth. : )

How has the exposure to sound installations (as opposed to producing albums) has influenced your creativity and composition?
i see installation versus composition very different processes and end products. the works i do for installation often do not have a set ending and are made of shifting loops that change over time. composing is far different structurally.

Read FULL Two and a Half Questions With Richard Chartier only on Headphone Commute.

http://www.myspace.com/richardchartier | http://www.3particles.com

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Peter Broderick - Float (Type)

Perhaps it's possible to stop comparing some contemporary classical musicians to Max Richter, and instead begin comparing them to Peter Broderick. After a release of a 7" single on John Twells' (Xela) Type Records, Portland based Peter Broderick emerges with a full length album, Float. For this release, Broderick borrows his friends Amanda Lawrence for string and vocal work, and Skyler Norwood to aid in recording and effects from a collaboration on Loch Lomond's Paper The Walls (Hush Records, 2007). Float is immediately bold, familiar, and elegant. As any soundtrack written for a passing life, it transcends its message past the minor key. At first the album sounds too comfortable, like a soft blanket thrown over the frigid winter feet. I feel as if I've heard this sound before, perhaps in a forgotten film, or as a fragment of a beloved prelude. But as I let my mind break down the composition, the messages begin to emerge. I'll let you hear your own details - I'd hate to lock the music into words. Broderick's banjo playing adds an interesting element to the ensemble of the [usual] piano, strings and an occasional guitar. And I can't help but draw a parallel between the ages of Broderick and Ólafur Arnalds - both are only twenty one! With that said, may I claim that modern classical is at the beginnings of a new cycle, with young multi-instrumentalists incorporating both, organic and electronic, leading the way. Highly recommended! A cozy cinematic score. Check out above mention artists plus Harold Budd, Michael Nyman, Alberto Iglesias, Clint Mansell and of course Jóhann Jóhannsson.

http://www.myspace.com/peterbroderick
http://www.myspace.com/typerecordings | http://www.typerecords.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Peter Broderick

What is your musical background?
I started classical violin training at age 7, and played in various youth orchestras, then in my early teenage years I lost interest in the violin and started playing electric guitar in rock bands. Around 15-16 I realized again how beautiful the violin actually is, and picked it up again. At this time I also became interested in all kinds of instruments, and started collected them and trying to teach them to myself. For a while there it seemed like I was somehow getting a new instrument every week! I would go to friend's houses and search through their attics and say "Can I have this?"

Who are your favorite classical composers?
Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Rachel Grimes, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Steve Reich...

Any hints as pertaining to the title of the album?
I think since it's just one simple word, there are many ways to look at it. Hopefully.

I feel that the gap between modern classical, ambient and electronic is slowly closing as led by a new generation. What do you picture the future of contemporary classical music to be?
I think I agree. I consider people like Max Richter to be wonderful classical composers, even though you'd probably more likely find his music in the electronica section, or even rock/pop at some stores...

How is the weather in Portland?
The Spring and Autumn are perfect -- crisp air and mild temperatures. Sometimes the winter gets just a little too cold, and sometimes the summer gets just a little too hot. Some people complain about the amount of rain there, but I like it.

http://www.myspace.com/peterbroderick

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Hecq - Night Falls (Hymen)

As I turn my attention from ethereal to dark ambient, it is only appropriate that I cover the latest album from one of my all time favorite artists, Hecq. Last year, I already hailed Ben Lukas Boysen's double disk release, titled 0000, as one of the Best of 2007 albums. It perfectly aligned along my favorite elements of grandiose orchestral sound and punctuated IDM beats. Upon my first listen of Hecq's fifth album, I anxiously await the glitchy breaks that are so prominent in Hecq's previous albums. Alas they never come. And with this proclamation, Boysen creates a new sound in which he instantly excels. Appropriately titled, Night Falls, Boysen drops the rhythmic structure altogether, and produces one of the most inspiring, lush, atmospheric and hauntingly dark pieces I have heard to date. There is a continuous cinematic tension of something hiding right beneath the shadow of a thinly layered sonic veil. Night Falls is an album that stops you dead in your tracks to really listen. What is that brooding sound, and does it have a name? I will not hide the fact, that with each swell of dynamic wave, the emotion within me rises as well, and I fight back the tears at the tip of each crescendo. With outstanding production and masterful control of individual frequencies, Hecq propels his sound techniques from a mere post-industrial IDM producer to a contemporary neo-classical composer. Hymen should be proud. Reminiscent of Murcof, Lusine ICL, Kattoo, Nebulo and Subheim.

http://www.myspace.com/hecq | http://www.hecq.de
http://www.myspace.com/hymenrecords | http://www.hymen-records.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Hecq

What inspired you to compose Night, such a grandiose instrumental piece?
even if this might sound like a quote from a b-movie but actually the experience that's nothing's eternal. things just not made to last... which is a thought i had to get used to over several years actually :) putting that vulnerability into an album was something i needed to do last year. it was created in 2-3 weeks actually... it was kind of phase i was in and where all pieces came together by themselves more or less - that again was proof to me that you can't force ideas really - that's why i haven't released an album in 2006...

Is there a story behind this [imaginary] soundtrack?
yeah...actually the story behind it are the reasons in the first answer but to be more precise: the loss of things and persons you wanted to keep, gaining clarity and how these things make you grow. i don't want this to sounds acroamatic really - i guess everyone knows that these experiences happen to us on almost a daily basis but we tend to mask them out (at least i do) so i have to channel these things into something else which helps me to reflect better and focused... It's not always like that though... sometimes i just love to get mental on plug ins :D3.

This is quiet a departure from the "usual" Hecq. How do you personally feel about it, and do you think you'll produce more?
yes it is - i feel that it was a need excursion from the previous work but it wont be the general style from now on. quite the opposite even - the 6th album (which i'm producing these days) will be pretty different from night falls...or better: night falls was the different album - as i'm inspired and motivated by many other things as well, nr.6 will be showing more and different approaches to music.

Do you have a desire for scoring films?
yes i have indeed! the sound design works are being a good outlet for this desire but i haven't had the chance to score an entire film yet - but i promise that this will happen very soon... its in the air :D

http://www.myspace.com/hecq | http://www.hecq.de

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The Drift - Memory Drawings (Temporary Residence Ltd)

It's almost half way through the year, and suddenly I realize that I haven't listened to any post-rock released in 2008. So, I hit up one of my favorite labels, Temporary Residence Limited, a Brooklyn based source of great artists like Eluvium, Explosions in the Sky, Tarentel, Grails, and of course, Mono... and what's this? A new album from The Drift, that somehow slipped past me. The Drift is a four-piece instrumental band from San Francisco, originally created as a Lazarus and Tarentel side project, which by now evolved into a strong group of its own. Memory Drawings is The Drift's second full length release, following on the heels of an album compiling their previous three EPs, Ceiling Sky, released in November of 2007. Danny Grody from Tarentel literally synergies with the amazing trumpet work by Jeff Jacobs [the first time I heard trumpet blending perfectly with post-rock was on The Pirate Ship Quintet's self titled EP]. The drums and the upright bass more than compliment the intricate phrases and melodies which were recorded directly onto analog tape. The jazz influences are lurking just behind the curtains of the post-rock driven motif, and the tracks on Memory Drawings do not tire out the listener with any previously used and abused formula. Each piece on an album tells its very own story - changing rhythms, tempo, dynamics, and the tone as it evolves into a little cinematic fragment of memory, never forgotten since never was drawn. Yet another step forward for post-rock. Recommended if you enjoy Tortoise, Do Make Say Think and early Tarentel.

http://www.myspace.com/trldrift | http://www.thedriftmusic.com
http://www.temporaryresidence.com

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Two and a Half Questions with The Drift

I have to ask - who are your current favorite artists and influences?
well the list is long and varied when it comes to influences, but if if we had to distill it down it would have to be something like: the necks, fela kuti, miles davis, fugazi, konono no. 1, ryhs chatham, cymande, dub of all kinds, SF, traveling, food, and most of all our friends and loved ones making art and music.

Any good stories from your tour across Europe?
well the tour was a good story in it of itself, but some stand out's would be playing the all tomorrow's parties festival that our friends explosions in the sky curated, being amongst many friends there - mono, eluvium, lazarus. it was a family event. our shows in poland we're outstanding (!)... the warmth from the people and generosity from our hosts was just incredible all-around. playing in a veranda in Esslingen Germany was surreal. having our friend cj boyd as a travel companion was also a real treat for us.

What's next in store for the band?
we've got a few exciting festival's in the works... LOLA Festival in London Ontario this September, the SF based annual Mission Creek Music Festival in July, and the Tanned Tin festival in Castellion Spain in November. we'll also be working on a string of us dates in the fall so keep your eyes peeled!

http://www.myspace.com/trldrift | http://www.thedriftmusic.com

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Dj Walkman - Milk Und Herring (Sutemos)

Sutemos is a Lithuanian net label releasing free music from an eclectic collective of artists since 2004. The most notable of the releases is a series titled Intelligent Toys which spearheads the electronic music scene with underground highlights from Vladislav Delay, Near The Parenthesis, Esem, Sleepy Town Manufacture, Machine Drum, Praveen, Funckarma, Quench and Sense just to run through of a few names from the last, fourth volume. This time around, the founder of the Sutemos label, who goes by the name of DJ Walkman, has released a mix, titled Milk Und Herring. When I pick up a DJ mix, I look not only for the flow of tracks, but also the selection - the most important aspect. I could care less how perfect your beat-matching and transitions are, if the tracks were clearly chosen only to compliment the mix. DJ Walkman demonstrates that it is possible to skillfully accomplish both. The tracks on this excellent compilation range in genres and span over a decade of releases, collecting some of my favorite releases of all times. The first three tracks are from Burial, Coldcut, and Thom Yorke. And that's just a start. DJ Walkman effortlessly queues up Photek, followed by Radiohead, Squarepusher and Underworld, creating extra long mixes [exactly how I like it]. Then we move into Plaid, Speedy J, and Nautilis. By the time Plastikman, poligon window and the Surgeon come on, you begin to understand what the meaning behind the title is, and how this stylistic variety can be consumed in one sitting, of mixing such diverse ingredients like milk and herring. You know you want to hear it! Especially because it's FREE! Download directly from the Sutemos site.

http://www.myspace.com/sutemos | http://www.sutemos.net

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I Monster - Neveroddoreven (Karma/Dharma)

Thanks to my DVR, I never watch commercials these days. But there was this one ad, from AT&T, which got me to hit pause. It displayed flowers opening up, containing the cell phones inside. But it was also the music that stopped me. After the second time I saw the ad, I jumped on Google and sure enough, the first hit was people asking "what's that song on that commercial..." [I used the lyrics as keywords]. I've never heard of I Monster before, and after previewing a couple of tracks I just threw the whole album into the shopping cart. I was truly surprised to enjoy the entire album. It is now on its sixth rotation, and thus, deserves a write up. I Monster is a British group creating fresh, fun and bouncy trip-hop with very catchy samples and melodies. The two members are Sheffield based Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer. Honer is also a member of All Seeing I and worked on some Add N to (X) albums. Together with Barry Smith (aka Barry 7), Honer founded a label, Cercle Records, on which the original 7" vinyl single of Daydream In Blue was released. In 1998 the duo has released their debut album, These Are Our Children. The track that got me all hyped up after hearing it only twice, Daydream In Blue, climbed the charts as a single, and soon after, the second album, Neveroddoreven, was released by Instant Karma and its sublabel, Dharma Records. [In 2004, Neveroddoreven, was also released on Atlantic]. I caught up with I Monster to get the spiel on their upcoming album. Here is the 411 - it is finished, no title or release date yet, a 7" vinyl single of a track titled A Sucker For Your Sound is coming up. Meanwhile you can preview the song on their myspazz. I seriously can't stop listening to this. Recommended if you like Moloko, Lovage, Portishead, Lemon Jelly, and Télépopmusik.

http://www.myspace.com/imonsteruk | http://www.imonstermusic.com

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Renfro - mathematics (MELTWATER)

The recipe for Renfro requires a variety of carefully scavenged ingredients. Locate field recordings of wild animals and sonic atmospheres. Add fragments of material ranging from NASA feeds of deep space to burning credit cards. Mix in some static, glitch, and a pinch of distortion. Now slowly fold in a melancholic melody and Tim Branney's hushed falsetto voice as he sings intricate lyrics over Atom-James Draper's electro-acoustic manipulations. That's Renfro, "meld[ing] experimental electronic musical techniques with dream-pop songwriting", and doing a damn good job at it too. I'm not big on vocals (haven't I said that before?), (I think it's something to do with constrained concepts), (or perhaps the forced structure of a 'song'), but Renfro breaks out of boxed rules and layers voice as another instrument over ambient soundscapes and light percussion fused from cliky flippity-flop bleep lo-fi pops. The duo formed in late 2005, and is based in East London and North Devon, where they have been playing with microphones and "poetics of isolation, difference and collapse". Along with the release of Mathematics, Meltwater Records will also promote with two remix EPs with contributions from Marsen Jules, Porn Sword Tobacco, AGF/Loeb and Christian Fennesz [that alone should excite your appetite!]. The instrumental sound is reminding me of Xela, Skyphone, Julien Neto, and Swod. Like Thom Yorke singing over William Basinski with dying circuits driving the beat. Favorite track: Half-Life Of Happiness.

http://www.myspace.com/renfromusicspace
http://www.myspace.com/meltwaterrecords | http://www.meltwater-records.com

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Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently



The 80 odd related artists for my profile are 4hero, Acumen Nation, Alias & Ehren, Amon Tobin, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Beck, Bill Hicks, Bong-Ra, Calibre, Caural, Clark, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, DJ Food, DJ Olive, DJ Vadim, Daedelus, David Cross, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Doug Stanhope, Duran Duran Duran, Enduser, Five Deez, Force of Nature, Four Tet, George Carlin, Gomez, Henry Rollins, Hieroglyphics, Howard Zinn, ILS, Isobel Campbell, Jega, Jel, Jello Biafra, Joe Rogan, Kettel, Koushik, Lewis Black, Lloop, Madlib, Malcom Kipe, Mitch Hedberg, Neutral Milk Hotel, Nitin Sawhney, Nujabes, OOO, Once11, Patton Oswalt, Pavement, Peshay, Plaid, Plump DJs, Prefuse 73, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Shitmat, Sole, Souls of Mischief, Squarepusher, Stereolab, Super Furry Animals, The Bees, The Pharcyde, Themselves, Tsutchie, Ugly Duckling
------------------------------------------
Take your top 50 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 20 similar artists (where the artist itself is the #1 most similar). The resulting number of unique artists is your super-eclectic score. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/supereclectic.php


My super-eclectic score is currently




The most similar artists for my profile are Bonobo (8), Sixtoo (8), Autechre (7), Bill Hicks (7), DJ Krush (7), Plaid (7), DJ Vadim (7), George Carlin (7), Lewis Black (7), David Cross (7)

Do I have a nice installment of Rotations for you. Here come reviews and my Two and a Half Questions with Hammock, Julien Neto, Emanuele Errante, Sankt Otten, The Ideal Setback and more! All right below. If you want the real-time updates subscribe to the feed with your favorite RSS aggregation tool (I use Google's Reader). And I really appreciate your comments, even if it's just two words. It lets me know that I'm not talking into the void. Remember, I do this for the love of music, and for you! Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

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Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow (Darla)

Hammock never fails to dissolve the illusion of time and space, break down the matrix of structured rules, and unplug from the looping pattern of being. Hammock makes me close my eyes and with the flow of sound hear my breathing. I occasionally drift outside of my thoughts while soaring through the vast soundscapes of Hammock's pillow-soft meadows. But when I listen closely, the music speaks in its ambient tongue to the body within. Andrew Thompson and Marc Byrd have been creating their ethereal lullabies since the inception of Hammock Music, and their debut release, Kenotic, in 2005. Four albums later we are rewarded with Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow. At once in a familiar territory of reverb-heavy guitars, pads, and strings, the progressions are reminiscent of sound left over from Hammock's last masterpiece, Raising Your Voice...Trying to Stop an Echo. This recognition is not a mere coincidence. In 2007 Hammock was asked to play at the Riceboy Sleeps exhibit (the art project of Sigur Rós' Jón "Jónsi" Birgisson and Parachutes' Alex Somers) in a modest loft, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. But this was Hammock's first live PA, with no previous experience or sufficient budget to unleash their layered sonic ocean. A unique Hammock sound had to be created specifically for the live performance of the duo, using only their guitars, pedals, and synths. This stripped down version of Hammock revealed its essence at the core. Although the experience of live sound can never be repeated, its echo is shared with you, in this studio recording of the original music written for the occasion. And maybe... just maybe... they will sing for us tomorrow.

An interesting afterthought by the event's organizer, Chuck Dodson:
Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow

http://www.myspace.com/hammockmusic | http://www.hammockmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/darlarecords | http://www.darla.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Hammock

How did your debut live performance shape your music production?
The production process on "Maybe They Will Sing for us Tomorrow" centered around capturing the same vibe & spirit of the live performance. We were able to record all of the pieces very soon after the "Riceboy Sleeps" opening & that helped in capturing the essence of that body of work. We performed the songs more or less live (very few overdubs & no click tracks) & then went back & focused on the string arrangements & wrote 2 additional pieces. Initially we were planning to use some of those songs on our next release, but after hearing them on tape, in context to one another, it seemed to make much more sense to release them as a single project.

What is the most important lesson that you took away from the experience?
In performing these songs, we had to put ourselves in the mindset of a string section basically. Because there are no beats to follow, all of the cues & changes are not only felt & heard, but come about through visual communication. A nod here, a glance there; I think it has helped us become much more intuitive & focused, especially live.

Will the rest of us get an opportunity to see Hammock live?
Hopefully so. We have a few things on the books, but I think the initial hurdle of performing our music in a live setting has been cleared.

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Julien Neto - Le Fumeur de Ciel (Type)

I've been listening to Julien Neto for a couple of years now, since his debut Le Fumeur De Ciel came out on John Twells' (Xela) beloved Type Records. So it is way overdue for a proper review. Especially since lately the album keeps popping up in my rotations again. Not much is known about an artist producing these surreal, ethereal, insomniac lullabies. We know that Julien lives in Paris, and has produced other [unknown] works under many monikers. The latter is not surprising, since the music on Le Fumeur De Ciel is clearly produced by a season artist. Two tracks on the album feature samples by Keith Kenniff, also known for his work on Type under Goldmund and Helios. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if Neto turned out to be Kenniff's alter ego, but then again, Neto's site is hosted on inpuj.net - home of Proswell. I have confirmed though, that Julien Neto is indeed his real name, and that Kenniff and Neto are different people ;). So really, the mystery behind the real man remains. And the mystery works well with the hazy smoke rising slowly into the sky. The sound is melancholic, cinematic, and without a doubt, modern classical. There is hint of suppressed memory that is bubbling up to the surface in another form of water that can not be turned to tears. The acoustic instruments are in turn consoled by their digital counterparts, within the pieces of a molded program music. Type extrapolates: "Neto based part of the record on the poems of Keats finding a kindred spirit in his deep and moving romanticism." Closing your eyes, you too, will draw on the special images within you. Bring this album back for another spin, if you like Max Richter, Colleen, Susumu Yokota, and Sylvain Chaveau. Favorite track: Voy.

http://www.myspace.com/julienneto | http://www.jules.inpuj.net
http://www.myspace.com/typerecordings | http://www.typerecords.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Julien Neto

Who are your current inspirations, in terms of modern and classical artists?
I tend to listen to just about anything I can, regardless of the genre. I have been on a golden era hip-hop tip lately, but I have been playing quite a lot of jazz and klezmer music too. As for classical music composers, it is hard to mention any as an inspiration without sounding pompous, but I have a quite a tender spot for Debussy.

Le Fumeur De Ciel seems to be a conceptual album around poems of Keats. Is there another melancholic message hiding beneath the surface?
As a matter of fact, only a bit of the album is based on poems of Keats.

You've been pretty quiet since the last release. What have you been working on?
I'd like to avoid making the same album twice, which is probably what has been holding me for some time. I have had the chance to work on a few remixes for friends and I am planning to release a dub(as in reggae-dub) record on Jahtari as soon as I am happy with what I can come up with. A sampler featuring one of my tracks has just been released.

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Stateless - Stateless (Studio !K7)

I first came across Stateless after hearing Chris James contribute vocals to DJ Shadow's last album, The Outsider. I picked up the self titled debut on Studio !K7, and got treated to exactly what I was looking for - indie tracks mixed with trip-hop beats and a hint of that Radiohead sound. Stateless is a Leeds based band comprising of afore mentioned Chris James on vocals, guitars and keyboards; Justin Percival on the bass; David Levin on the drums; Rod Buchanan-Dunlop on live-FX and keyboards, and Gerard Roberts (Kidkanevil) on the turntables adding that staple Portishead feel. By the time you reach the third track, Bloodstream, which also appeared as a promo single (with two remixes by Henrik Schwarz), you realize that Stateless got somethin' there. Still a bit in the shadow of Josh Davis [pun intended?], Stateless is starting to pick up steam across the UK electronic/indie scene. Listening to an album a couple of times, you realize that Stateless' lyrics are full of soul. This is the kind of album you've been craving for without knowing. Play Bloodstream to your [non-electronic-inclined] friends in a car, and they'll be asking you questions about the artist, to which, in a matter-of-fact voice you can reply, "Oh, that? That's Stateless. Haven't you heard?" Recommended if you also follow leftfield sound from Hird, Plej, Little Dragon, UNKLE and Nostalgia 77.

http://www.myspace.com/statelessonline | http://www.statelessonline.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/k7records | http://www.k7.com

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Emanuele Errante - Humus (Somnia)

Italian ambient composer, Emanuele Errante lands his second full length release on the only label where it belongs - Somnia. Errante began his musical career in electronic folk-rock bands. In 2004 he released his first solo album, Stand, under Mais alias on a Maetrixsolution netlabel. In 2005, Errante released his first ambient work under his real name, Absolute EP on Maetrixsolution once again. 2006 reaped his debut full length, Migrations, on Apegenine Recordings - a Canadian independent label for electronic textural music that first hit the scene with a compilation of ambient sounds from Julien Neto, Xhale, Xerxes, and Khonnor among a few [definitely worth checking out as well]. Errante's sound is soothing, organic, drifting, and at the same time present in the now. The textures within the soundscapes are carefully laid out, like a crisp white table cloth saved for a special occasion. The music within Humus is more than just a selection of layered ambient pads and smoky dream states. Intelligent design and production looms just around the corner, ready to reveal itself just as you float away. Errante is definitely an excellent addition to the roster of Somnia. Instantly fitting in among the modern classical releases by its owner, Evan Bartholomew, Somnia's third hand made installment propels the independent label to the ranks of Xela's Type Records and Deaf Center's Miasmah. I've got my eyes and ears open awaiting any future releases from this young label, as it slowly reveals its layers and unfolds its wings. Recommended for the likes of the above mentioned artists. Favorite track: Radio Hopes

http://www.maisound.com/errante | http://www.myspace.com/eerrante
http://www.somniasound.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Emanuele Errante

What defines modern classical sound for you?
The modern classical sound is the result of a constant research of new canons in the creative process, associated to a deep innermost research. The new resulting approach can include the whole music background of the last years, but the standards are radically distorted and released from the cages of the strict scores of the traditional classical music. I don't like to close music in small labeled boxes ordered by genres, categories and sub-categories though. I prefer considering the arts for what they express, no matter the genre, the style, or the standards they belong to.

Are there any Italian artists that we should check out?
My reference point is an artist from my city, Naples: Luciano Cilio. He was only 33 when he committed suicide in 1983. His music was a step ahead of any other known artist. If you listen to his tracks you realize how his music is still incredibly projected to the future. Maybe he was too "modern", too advanced, too much ahead to be understood and those might be some of the reasons of his sad story. His music survived though, and I strongly recommend to hear "Dell'universo assente", a collection of his masterpieces released by the label Die Schachtel in 2004, whose contents in the 20-pages booklet have been written by Jim O'Rourke. I'll never stop thanking Lino Monaco of the great electronic duo Retina.it (Hefty) for letting me know Cilio's music several years ago. Also, I'm obliged to mention two Italian artists who do not need any introduction:Ludovico Einaudi and Alessandra Celletti. As per ambient music, I like Enrico Coniglio (especially in duo with Elisa Marzorati) Giuseppe Ielasi and Lorenzo Senni.

Tell us about NetstockFest.
NetstockFest was the very first 4 days 24hours-nonstop music festival that happened completely online. I wanted to create a special event for the whole netaudio community and I thought it had to happen on the Internet, which is the natural environment for all commercial and non-commercial artists who come from netaudio. So I talked about the idea of an online festival to my friend Raffaele Marranzini and we immediately started studying the way to make it possible. Pete Leuenberger (head of the netlabel maetrixsolution and creator of the Everest-released project Mathon) and Manfred Genther (creator of the Lab30 festival in Germany) helped in the organization. The technology behind Netstock (whose name means "Woodstock on the Net") allowed any artist to perform live for 60 minutes from his bedroom, his studio, or from any other place with an Internet connection available. The performance was broadcasted to a central server and then replicated in real time by all the webradios involved thus letting multiple users from all over the world listen to the festival without any problem of buffering and bandwidth. All listeners could also chat in a specific chatroom created on Soulseek and share comments and opinions in real time about the performances they were listening to. In the days before the festival we had to test the connection for every artist who participated and we tested it again on a private broadcasting one hour before each artist went "on-air". It's been a very long weekend, where we almost did not sleep at all but it was great fun for everybody. Maybe for the first time artists had the opportunity to play a concert from their own places and reach a global audience in real time! Artists were very nervous before performing as if they had to go up on a real stage. Some of them broadcasted from parks or other open-air places where they went with their friends and then posted pictures taken during their performances. We had a mean of 3000 listeners for every performance which is a great result considering that we did very little promotion. We felt like pioneers. No other event with the same features of Netstock has happened since then, as far as I know. In the lineup there were names like Kilowatts, Dennis DeSantis, Bern, Molair, Alex Navarro, Retina.it, Tomas Jirku and Rob Warren, Krill.Minima, among the others. I hope we will have a chance to repeat this great experience one of these days.

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Gescom - A1-D1 (Skam)

Gestalt Communications returns after four years of silence, with two 12"s on Skam. The same release is repackaged into a mini white album with a clear sticker announcing in Braille its abbreviated name. The rest is just bar code and catalog number. The six tracks contain chopped up, effed up, transposed and twisted samples from classics like the 1978 disco, Space Dust, by Galactic Force Band; the 1994 acid track Downfall by Armando; 1993 ambient piece by David Byrne and Brian Eno, Come With Us; and a Chicago house track, No Way Back, from 1986 by Adonis. As always, the true identity behind the Gescom collective remain unknown, and we can only guess at the names of the usual suspects. Of course, Skam does not shed any light on the obscured artists either. What we can extract from this release is that it's as dirty, mental, and sick acid flashback as we could possibly anticipate. Whether Sean Booth or Rob Brown were involved, we can only presume, but will never know. What we can be sure of, is that A1-D1 sounds nothing like the 2008 album by Autechre, Quaristice. Perhaps Russel Haswell or Rob Hall had another hand at this. But since Gescom (aka, friends of Autechre) is a project of almost twenty different people, the digging and guessing is a moot point. Ignore the mystery and enjoy the release if you like abstract IDM by the above mentioned names plus AFX, The Tuss, Lego Feet, Jega, Clark, and Mr. 76ix. And I really dig A1.

http://www.skam.co.uk | http://www.myspace.com/gescomskam

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Sankt Otten - Wunden Gibt Es Immer Wieder (Hidden Shoal)

Hidden Shoal continues to impress. My first introduction to the label was with Wes Willenbring's debut, Somewhere Someone Else. With its 29th release, it is clear that this Australian label is in no doubt with us to output quality experimental ambient, post-rock, and shoegazing pop material from across the globe. Sankt Otten is Stephan Otten and Oliver Klemm, hailing from Osnabrueck, Germany, with two previous full length releases: Eine Kleine Traurigkeit on Eleganz Records, and Wir Koennen Ja Freunde Bleiben on Hidden Shoal. Don't try to translate the titles, just take in the music as is. Trust me. Wunden Gibt Es Immer Wieder, is the duo's third LP, in which they shed the Bristol's trip-hop influence, and move towards a cinematic territory. The instrumental ambiance of the album is lavishing, gorgeous, and inexplicably German [well, what's that supposed to mean?]. I guess some of those lightly distorted, sawtooth synth and guitar sounds gliding over thick and layered pads is what makes it "that German sound" for me - think Ulrich Schnauss, Klaus Schulze, and sometimes Pole. Read my Two and a Half Questions with Sankt Otten to see what they think about that. The percussion accompaniment is light and upbeat, diluting melancholic heaviness with an airy feeling. And the melodies... Ah, the melodies. The track, Der Groove Des Guten Gewissens, with its dramatic strings and high octave piano notes is a true cinematic experience - turn that up and walk around the city in the rain, and let me know if your eyes don't swell up with tears. Both Hidden Shoal releases are available and distributed through Tonevendor. Similar artists cloud includes Talk Talk, Ennio Morricone, Portishead, John Barry and Bohren & der Club of Gore.

http://www.myspace.com/sanktotten | http://www.sanktotten.de
http://www.myspace.com/hiddenshoal | http://www.music.hiddenshoal.com

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Two and a Half Questions with Sankt Otten

In my review I mention a unique German sound. Do you feel that there is a distinct geographic influence in your music?
Spontaneously, and as a German, I can't really see any apparent signs in our music, which could be linked directly to our German heritage. At least not in the way that one would think of Jamaica and their sort of music, for example. I guess considering the point of view of some of my other global compatriots that might look differently. What is the German stereotype in other countries? A mixture of tradition, being rooted, and visionaries? That somehow could fit to us, the Germans.

What are your classical music influences?
What I would accept, is that we try to achieve the sort of atmosphere, which is usually created by the classical composers, such as Henryk Gorecki, for example. It's a one of a kind mix of longing and mourning and yet at the end there is always a ray of hope. You combine that with hypnotic beats, the way you know them from Krautrock or Trip-Hop and the unbelievable Robert Fripp guitar soundscapes and that's how you get to Sankt Otten.

If your album was a soundtrack to a film, what would the main character's name be and why?
No clue. A mixture between a David Lynch episode and Brokeback Mountain with Darth Vader as a supporting character ;-)

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Claro Intelecto - Metanarrative (Modern Love)

After four volumes of Warehouse Sessions and a few additional twelve inchers on Modern Love, Mark Stewart releases his sophomore LP on the same label. Stewart began his Claro Intelecto project in 2003 on Manchester's IDM label, AI, with a Peace of Mind EP. He quickly followed the release with the acclaimed Neurofibro (named after his genetic disease). Metanarrative is more melodic than the preceding EPs, centered around deep bass groans and minimal grinds building up the postmodernist grand narrative. Stewart infuses the Detroit influenced UK beats with his IDM and electro background, creating an album that spans the sub-genres from dub techno to tech-house. This sound falls somewhere around cold warehouse nights and deep underground lounges, where the walls vibrate with bass, killing all the vermin in the process. In Neurofibro, I found myself attached to a handful of glitchy tracks on the wavelength of Arovane, Nautilis and Tipper. This time, Stewart has left his experimental touch in the past, and in Metanarrative we're only offered the straight up four-to-the-floor beats. The bpm doesn't scour or trot, instead it bathes in its leisurely rhythm. Combine that with a short album playtime (40 min), and you find yourself hitting play again after eight tracks. Recommended if follow Ricardo Villalobos, Alex Smoke and Lawrence.

http://www.claro-intelecto.com | http://www.myspace.com/claro_intelecto
http://www.modern-love.co.uk

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The Herbaliser - Fabriclive.26 (Fabric)

I've been trying to chase down this mixed compilation for a couple of months now. Ever since I saw that The Herbaliser (Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba) contributed a mix towards London nightclub's Fabric label. Known for their trip-hop, downtempo, and jazz infused instrumental hip-hop tracks, The Herbaliser got signed to Ninja Tune back in 1995, and since then been a resident for the label's staple sound. Their last appearance was a 7" single on Skyline Recordings, as well as a track contribution (Gadget Funk) towards a 2008 triple CD sampler from Ninja Tune, You Don't Know: Ninja Cuts. For the FabricLive.26 mix, The Herbaliser took a step back from downtempo sound to make a party mix. And what a mix it is. The turntable skills are flawless, but it is the track selection that makes this an instant gem for me. I feel it is my duty to take you on a quick tour of this genre-spanning collection of classics. We start off with ragga track by Million Dan, moving quickly into dirty UK hip-hop, then a track by RJD2 and a label mate appearance by Dynamic Syncopation. Blufoot and Yungun add some North London rhymes followed by a classic Hurby's Machine with Antoinette. On track 8 (out of 24), we break down into James Brown! From here on The Herbaliser rock the tables with some funk, electro, and of course, soul. We've got J Rocc, old-skool breakbeat track from Demon Boyz, and even a 1971 soul disco from The Jackson 5! The Roots kick in with Boom! at track 21, and Dynamix II treats us to an '87 vocoder electro classic. We barely finish with some crunk from Diplo, as Bugz in the Attic contributes the last broken beat. Whew! It's a doozy! Thank you, Herbaliser, thank you!

http://www.herbaliser.com | http://www.myspace.com/theherbz
http://www.fabriclondon.com | http://www.myspace.com/fabricfamily

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The Ideal Setback - Dream Dialogue (self)

These days I find myself spending a lot of time contemplating stillness, the nature of now, and the peace of being. With that, certain sound becomes my companion and a closer friend. Music without boundaries, concepts and hidden messages is best for clearing out my head of thoughts and instead turning them on within. Is it then a simple coincidence, that an album conceived for such moments lands itself in my demo bin, or is it something others may wont to call "a sign". Todd Chappell is the man behind this solo instrumental ambient project called The Ideal Setback. Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, Todd blends minimal soundscapes, swelling pads, and simple melodies with guitar infused shoegaze. The mood of the album is calm, measured, and enlightened. Somewhere, half way between nothingness and dissociated bliss, the distortion slowly creeps in, takes a bow, and steps aside for bass, only to drop you into a reverb saturated oblivion once again. Chappell is definitely crafting some of the exemplary pieces where "less" is always "more". Dream Dialogue is a perfect soundtrack for your meditations, and I can only look forward to Chappell's future output as he perfects and tweaks his skill of ambient production. Similar projects that immediately come to mind are Hammock, Stars of the Lid, Belong and Evan Bartholomew. A previously released Demo CD is available as a free download from the Ideal Setback myspace page.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/idealsetback | http://www.myspace.com/theidealsetback

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Two and a Half Questions with Todd Chappell

Describe your composition process.
How I compose my songs varies pretty often. If I had to put it into steps, I would say the first step would be that I come up with something simple, whether it's a piano part or a chord progression, and I take it from there. After that, I just do what sounds good, and/or what I want the atmosphere of the song to be. A lot of times I think a song is done, and I'll go and listen to it again and realize I need more there, so that's sort of step two in the process. There's a lot of layering with my music, and I try to manipulate the sounds I use as much as possible. I'll go back days later after recording the song and add reverb and delay and mix things differently, and even reverse sounds and change keys just to explore all of my possibilities. I've had songs that have changed completely from the original just by adding an extra layer of a reversed pad, etc - (An example of this would be "For Once").

Besides music, what is the role of minimalism in your daily life?
I think minimalism plays a part in my daily life without me even knowing it sometimes. I've always been drawn to the "less is more" aspect. I'll be looking at photographs, and I'll see one of a huge landscape with tons of trees and mountains and think "that's pretty cool", and then I'll see a picture of two wires out of focus and a white background and think "now that's awesome". It's just a natural thing that I've always admired - how you can show so much with presenting so little.

Where does ambient meet shoegaze?
I think ambient and shoegaze can mean completely different things to different people. To me, shoegaze is represented by bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, and ambient is represented by bands like Stars of the Lid and Hammock. I guess the point where both genres meet would have to be the reverb aspect of it. Both genres use a ton of reverb to change the ways the guitars, vocals, and drums sound, but I think it's the way that they're presented that separate them. To me, shoegaze is more raw sounding and ambient is more refined.

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Wagon Christ - Tally Ho! (Astralwerks)

Hailing from Cornwall, England, Luke Vibert started his career early by releasing a debut album with Jeremy Simmonds on Richard D. James' Rephlex Records in 1993. He then moved on to Rising High Records releasing an ambient album Phat Lab Nightmare under an alias Wagon Christ. In 1996, Luke tried his hand at drill'n'bass with an alias Plug releasing Drum 'n' Bass for Papa on Blue Planet. Luke finally landed on Astralwerks - a Virgin Records owned New York label known for main stream electronic acts such as Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Future Sound of London and the likes. Tally Ho! is Vibert's sixth full length album (third under Wagon Christ moniker) to come out on Astralwerks in 1998. Luke's sound fits in nicely alongside the friends and artists that defined the late 90's electronica, such as Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, µ-Ziq and Cylob. "Together they assimilated such diverse elements as hip hop beats and drum & bass into the more eccentric take on electronica they tweaked, and kick-started a virtual insurrection in sound around the world," notes journalist Andrez Bergen. Tally Ho! is a perfect example of more stylistic exploration under the electronica umbrella, where jungle meets trip-hop, and new genres emerge. The sound is upbeat, confident and playful at the same time. Luke's other notable aliases among the many are Kerrier District, Amen Andrews and Ace Of Clubs with a deep discography on defining labels such as Warp, Ninja Tune and Planet Mu. In 2007 Luke collaborated with Jean-Jacques Perrey on Moog Acid project for Lo Recordings. I think I did more name-dropping in this review than talk about the music, but I trust you get the idea. Five stars for this one.

http://www.brainwashed.com/vibert | http://www.myspace.com/lukevibertdj
http://www.astralwerks.com | http://www.myspace.com/astralwerks

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Armen Nalbandian Trio - Manchester Born (Blacksmith Brother Music)

Armen Nalbandian has recently turned 30. The career of this improvisational and experimental jazz musician spans over a decade of over 600 original compositions and performances. Born in Manchester, England, Armen has dedicated his life to music, recently rising to the position of Musical Director of California's Fresno Art Museum. A protégé of jazz legend John Hicks, Armen has experience playing with members of the Classic Coltrane Quartet, Ornette Coleman Quartet and Charles Mingus' ensemble. For Manchester Born, Armen comfortably settles behind Fender Rhodes, while Kevin Hill joins him on the upright bass and Brian Hamada on the drums (I just love his brushed ride cymbals). The collection of ten tracks is upbeat and light, transforming musicians' inner moods into gliding fingers, plucked strings, and gentle taps. This child of contemporary jazz skillfully folds the familiar influences into an interpretation curated for a modern ear. The playful and organic sound instantly reminds me of the limitless possibilities that can be achieved with just three instruments, leaving me afterward humming my own improvisations to the rhythm buried in my mind. Armen's latest solo album, Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off, is an abstract and experimental improvisation for prepared Fender Rhodes, full of distorted reverb, controlled delays, noisy feedback and altered hammers for a unique percussion, all recorded live with no post-production - John Cage would have been proud.

http://www.armennalbandian.com | http://www.myspace.com/armennalbandian

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Skalpel - Konfusion (Ninja Tune)

Being in the mood for future and nu-jazz, I throw on Skalpel into my rotations. Igor Pudlo and Marcin Cichy are the crate diggers out of Wroclaw, Poland. Juxtaposing lifted jazz memories from old Polish records (circa 1960-70) along the broken beats sourced from the same material, Skalpel lays out a path much often traveled, but rarely with a precision of a GPS-like time shift. The music flows naturally while holding on to its history rooted hooks and jabs. The instrumental loungy sound borders funky trip-hop, but is undeniably jazz infused with samples of Hammond, saxophones, and laid back drum strolls. Konfusion is Skalpel's second album on Ninja Tune, following along the heels of their 2004 full length debut, self titled Skalpel. I really like this quote from label's page : "Very much one for jazzers, beat heads and strong cigarette smokers, Konfusion is an album to soundtrack your espresso breaks and to play so that you don't have to read Jean Paul Sartre." The sixties and seventies were pretty tough on the Polish folk. With the Communist party of the Soviet Union instituted over the government in a post WWII country, free expression, especially American influenced jazz music, was somewhat of an underground movement. Skalpel performs a tremendous service to the audiophiles around the world by resurrecting dusty sound of artistic freedom. Recommended if you like Jaga Jazzist, Bonobo, Amon Tobin, UNKLE, and DJ Vadim. Break this one out for another spin if you missed it on the first cycle.

http://www.skalpelsound.com | http://www.ninjatune.net

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