Cloaks - Versus Grain

Cloaks - Versus Grain
Genre : Electronica, Noise, Experimental
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01 #00148 2:43
02 Junk 3:49
03 Against 6:17
04 #00162 1:38
05 Rust On Metal 4:38
06 Sixmenace Two 3:49
07 #00197 2:07
08 R.F.I.D. 4:10
09 Detritus 5:23

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This one's been festering in the pipeline for a while now, but it seems like the time has come for Cloaks' debut album 'Versus Grain' to infiltrate and snap at the ankles of a rather complacent dubstep scene. To say that Cloaks are swimming against the tide would be something of an understatement; as opposed to offering the listener 'a breath of fresh air', they have created a sound so dense, it's closer to giving them a boot to the face. Their 'Hi Tek' EP for Werk discs back in 2007 was just the sort of deadly mutant strain that we had hoped dubstep would produce, like the sweat bacteria from a 2005/6 era DMZ rave left to grow into a malignant and bastardized form of it's own. Cloaks use found sound and circuit bent instruments to articulate their noisier tendancies, while creating monolithic slabs of dubstep riddims reminiscent of old style Loefah, Pinch or Vex'd to drive the message home. Tracks like 'Against' or 'Rust On Metal' use relentlessly claustrophobic bass and squalls of industrial noise to pin you to the wall, while dancing is optional. 'SixMenaceTwo' is a darkened highlight, spewing forth sludgy streams of digitally hacked hardware, masking their techniques but making their intent perfectly clear. When a trace of melody attempts to rise about the din on '00197' it's quickly subsumed under a cacophany of billowing bass and shredded metallic klanks, leading to apt comparisons of Trent Reznor performing through Jah Shaka's stacks. This is the heavy heavy dubstep sound that fans of Pan Sonic, Distance, Ben Frost or even the Atak imprint will soak up like a mouldy sponge.

Mitchell Akiyama - Mort Aux Vaches

Mitchell Akiyama - Mort Aux Vaches
Genre : Electronica, Ambient, Experimental

01 Mort Aux Vaches (43:55)

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Second essential Mort Aux Vaches of the week is from Mitchell Akiyama. A 40min+ untitled composition focussed around a glitch to harmonius drone transition with guitar notes, ratting micro percussion, heavy bass passages, white noise all melted into a wonderous semi classical framework. Warning, the packaging of this CD is crazy - the wrap around is made out of a soft sheet copper substitute with the artists name embossed into the front. Please keep the sharp edges away from any soft fleshy areas. We cannot be held responsible for your hospital bills if you treat this CD incorrectly, but if you do at least you'll have Mitch's ace soundtrack to help you through your recovery. Ace!

Variant - The Setting Sun

Variant - The Setting Sun
Genre : Electronica
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1. The Setting Sun (23:13)
2. FallingStars (51:58)
3. As Time Stood Still... (11:25)

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Steve Hitchell delivers a serious treat for his legion of devoted followers with the next logical step in the Echospace saga leading to this digital only release exploring sublime ambient electronics in a textured, analog style. As Variant, Hitchell delves into his most expansive and inspiring palette with three expansive tracks ranging from eleven minutes up to forty four minutes plus, sketched onto his canvas with a widescreen scope and an emotionally affected cinematic intent that makes this a deeply engrossing listen. Made for an obviously specific time and place, 'The Setting Sun' sees a marked shift in Hitchell's work, sounding more like Oren Ambarchi or Keith Fullerton Whitman than any of the more familiar names his work has been associated with in the past. Incorporating resonant pianos, hazily thrummed guitars and swelling organs with rippling waves of curling analog distortion this is surely one of the most outstanding pieces in his catalogue, if it wasn't for the epic 'Falling Stars' which succeeds it. Clocking in at forty four minutes, we head into deep reverberating territory with a slow building vista of frayed synth swells and wistfully drifting atmospherics reminiscent of Klaus Schulze, or classic Global Communications with equally effective inclinations. Which brings us to the album's parting 11 minute elegy, 'As Time Stood Still', where the inertia of the first two tracks is gently shaken off with a deeply padded flow of ebbing atmospherics, lapping every intangible surface of the womb-like subbass-bubble that Hitchell creates with a concoction of vintage analog hardware and reel-to-reel recording techniques. This is a hugely involving listen that will appeal to followers Tim Hecker AND Basic Channel, or Vladislav Delay AND Oren Ambarchi. Huge Recommendation = Essential Purchase.

Lusine – A Certain Distance

Lusine – A Certain Distance
Genre : Electronica, IDM, Techno
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01. (00:04:44) Lusine – Operation Costs
02. (00:04:38) Lusine – Two Dots
03. (00:04:41) Lusine – Tin Hat
04. (00:06:26) Lusine – Thick Of It
05. (00:03:51) Lusine – Twilight
06. (00:05:00) Lusine – Baffle
07. (00:04:14) Lusine – Every Disguise
08. (00:06:10) Lusine – Double Vision
09. (00:05:09) Lusine – Gravity
10. (00:05:24) Lusine – Crowded Room
11. (00:06:38) Lusine – Cirrus

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For years, Jeff McIlwain has been recording music as Lusine that expertly straddles the electronic/pop divide; with A Certain Distance, McIlwain cracks open his productions to reveal the beauty lurking within. A Certain Distance sees McIlwain employing human vocals and pop structures, hooks and melodies in the service of something warmer and more welcoming than the Lusine of old. Mapping human emotions via technology may be an insurmountable task, but A Certain Distance brings McIlwain closer than most to achieving the impossible.

McIlwain has been gradually building his Lusine persona from the jagged majesty of 2005's Ghostly debut Serial Hodgepodge through the drifting atmospheres of 2007's Language Barrier (on Hymen Records). Now, with A Certain Distance, Lusine has finally arrived, synthesizing decades of electronic music both popular and experimental into a sophisticated, catchy, and danceable sound unlike anything else. Lassoing bits of downtempo and ambient, pop melodies and leftfield noise, and a smattering of techno and house both minimal and maximal, A Certain Distance is ultimately a work of singular beauty by an artist in full command of his craft.

Each track on A Certain Distance is a world unto itself, as McIlwain's careful touch lends the album a depth that goes on for days. "Two Dots," the album's lush first single, features vocals by Vilja Larjosto sliced up into a slinky, paranoid downtempo number; "Baffle" creeps like a well-dressed stalker as slivers of clean-toned guitar dance around a static-y beat; "Every Disguise" and "Crowded Room" are the record's most dancefloor-friendly tracks, the former trafficking in jaunty, humid funk, and the latter grafting Detroit-style chords onto airy, weightless rhythm that seems to hover inches above the ground.

On A Certain Distance, Jeff McIlwain dives deep into his technological array and comes up with something breathtakingly complex and, yes, emotional. The record unfolds like electronic-pop fractal-each detail, upon closer examination, reveals a lovingly constructed world of details within details, multiplying and dividing, extending into infinity.

Digital w/Cover art. 2009.

Port-Royal – Dying in Time

Port-Royal – Dying in Time
Genre : Electronica, Ambient
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1. hva (failed revolutions)
2. nights in kiev
3. anna ustinova
4. exhausted muse/europe
5. i used to be sad
6. susy: blue east fading
7. the photoshopped prince
8. balding generation (losing hair as we lose hope)
9. hermitage pt. 1
10. hermitage pt. 2
11. hermitage pt. 3

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2 Years have past in all our lives since the release of the port-royal’s “afraid to dance” (Resonant) but the royals have been keeping very busy with writing, recording, touring the EU and Russia, as well as creating remixes for the likes of Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. For “Dying in time” port-royal have expanded their sound to encompass the more electronically skewed perspectives of synth-pop and even techno while still holding steadfast to their roots and original core sound that has always laid somewhere between shoegaze and emotively soaring ambient. As the title may suggest there is an undercurrent of aching melancholy to the album, as if the band are expressing the feelings they have for the temporality of life’s situations and feelings.

Celer - Brittle

Celer - Brittle
Genre : Electronica, Ambient
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01. Untitled (1:14:38)

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Celer is the artistic endeavour of the husband and wife duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. Danielle was a teacher of special education and music therapy, a published writer of poetry and prose, a painter, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. She had an extensive background in Gender Studies, Education, Basque History, Photography and Tibetan Studies, as well as having lived in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the United States. She passed away on July 8, 2009 of heart failure at the age of 26.

Since forming in 2006, Celer’s intent was to produce works that reflect the sincere nature and importance of love, the fragility of life, and the importance of togetherness, through a relative and absolute symposium of expression.

This is particularly apparent on ‘Brittle’, an album produced with the aim of demonstrating a feeling of continuation through what sometimes seems like a delicate existence, a philosophy which takes on a deeper resonance in light of these recent, tragic events.

Musically, all of the sounds contained on ‘Brittle’ were created by piano, violin, cello, tingsha bells, harpsichord, and whistle. There are also field recordings from the inside of a room, with the windows open, but containing largely only room noise. The resulting recordings were then structured into 19 different tracks, which were then restructured into one single forming track of 74 minutes. All of the different pieces were merged together, to blur interruption and to allow the possibility of unfocused repetition.

The album is arranged to move in a specific way, not simply section by section, but by subtle movements that swell and sway calmly. Instead of creating an environment to sink into, Celer hope that the piece will instead act as a blanket, moving with the listener through gentle sways, shifting tones and small spaces of silence that are as unpredictable as thought.

To Kill A Petty Burgeoisie – Marlone

To Kill A Petty Burgeoisie – Marlone
Genre : Electronica, Ambient
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1. You’ve Gone Too Far
2. The Needle
3. Villain
4. Along The Line
5. I Will Hang My Cape In Your Closet
6. Bridgework
7. I Hear You Coming, But Your Steps Are Too Loud
8. In People’s Homes
9. Turritopsis
10. Summertime

Marlone is the second album release from the oddly monikered duo To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie. They are a pop band of sorts, in that their songs can worm their way into your head and not leave, but they are certainly not a group to be lumped in with the top 40 prattle that dominates the airwaves nor the mediocrity that smothers the interwebs.

Quite different from their other releases, Marlone is a more organic and open work, allowing breathing space for the songs to unfold and evolve; witness the slow, sinister burn of both ‘Villain’ and’Turritopsis’ And in quite a change of pace for the group, they even deliver a straight ahead pop song with the brisk romp of ‘In People’s Homes’.

What they assuredly are is a group that continually explores the union of the light and the dark, the sweetness of the female voice set against the salty backing tracks, always searching for the fine balance between the calming and the equilibrium challenging.

To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie consists of Jehna Wilhelm and Mark McGee, with various collaborators in both the studio and live settings. Marlone was born from a collection of songs written on tour and during live performances, with additional material taking form in the recording sessions and later in mixing. The album was recorded at the Sound Gallery
in Minneapolis, MN.

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