Archive for electronica

Bee Mask – Elegy For Beach Friday (Spectrum Spools) 2011

Posted in Bee Mask, Drone, Music with tags , , , on October 10, 2012 by noisenoisenoise

I have seen some unbelievably great shows this year. One of my absolute favourites was back in July when Rites Wild and a rather unimpressive local act supported the great Bee Mask aka Chris Madak. Of course with any great show there is always great merch and I just so happened to get myself a copy of Elegy For Beach Friday before I left.

It is difficult to describe the experimental  electronica that Bee Mask produces. It is fair to say that on this record, the foundations of the  sound is rooted firmly in drone territory but infused throughout are Caretaker-style nostalgia, bubbling electronica, buzzing insect-like sounds, broad sweeping elegiac passages of sheer beauty, synth excursions and clouds of opaque and menacing drone. As an album, Elegy works extraordinarily well notwithstanding that it is a compilation of rare vinyl and tape tracks from 2003 to 2010. In fact rarely has a record had such an effect on me as this. It is one of those records that seeps into the consciousness and is an almost perfect rendering of great electronica that explores  beauty, menace and sadness. Bee Mask has a new EP on Room 40 and his new Spectrum Spools release of new material arrives in a few weeks. Don’t be surprised to see either of those reviewed hear soon. Elegy is mesmerising and fantastic.

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Vampire Slayer – Dumb Death (Indian Gold) 2012

Posted in Music, Vampire Slayer with tags , , on March 19, 2012 by noisenoisenoise

I may have become a little obsessed with bandcamp over the past two weeks. It has become my favourite late night time suck. I came across Dumb Death about two weeks ago and well let’s face it, music not withstanding, album has to have the best cover art of any record ever in the history of music.  Here is yet another absolutely wonderful slice of hypnogogic electronica, this time from Valentin Torres, a self taught musician from Mexico who is also the cofounder of Indian Gold Records. This is like one of those great records that Not Not Fun release every now and then. Dumb Death is like  a giant day-glo chill-mix of Dan Friel electronics, Oneohtrix Point Never style synth love, DJ Scotch Egg computer game dub, Mego ambience and even a pinch of Roni Size drum and bass. I can’t recommend this enough. One of the great records of 2012.

You can get it here.

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Max Bondi – Convolution (Tartaruga) 2012

Posted in Drone, Max Bondi, Music with tags , , , on March 13, 2012 by noisenoisenoise

Tartaruga records make beautifully packaged CD’s of weird electronica and experimental goodness. Max Bondi’s Convolution is their latest release and is due out on 28 March 2012.  Convolution is Max Bondi’s second full length and is another reason why 2012 is  starting out as one of the best years for experimental music. Records like Convolution are difficult to pigeon-hole. Each of the tracks explore a single theme. The first two give variations to low end, slightly animated electronic drone but track three, Overcoding, give a burst of Oneohtrix-style bubbling synths. Other tracks explore dark ambient drone (Ori) and the hard to define electronica of Tim Hecker. All of the tracks are tightly defined, you won’t find anything hidden in the layers here but each track seems to build on the one that has come before and the album is most successful on tracks like Faltung which combines constantly repeating synth lines with undercurrents of drone. Repetition is one of the big themes of Convolution and it may be why Boomkat compared this record to the abstract minimalism of snd. There is a lot here to enjoy and if your thing is challenging electronica then Convolution is well worth a listen. If you are keen to hear what all the fuss us about you can listen to Convolutions here.

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Oval – Systemisch (Thrill Jockey) 1996

Posted in Music, Oval with tags , , , on August 15, 2010 by noisenoisenoise

Something weird has happened at my local indie records store. Over the past week they seem to have gotten a shitload of old stuff from Thrill Jockey and Drag City and selling it extremely cheaply. I’ve went a a bit stupid so if you see  a crap load of Thrill Jockey and Drag City releases being reviewed here you’ll know why.

I was stoked when I saw this. Oval has such a reputation as being one of the true innovators of electronic music and if you get a copy of Systemisch (and you should) you’ll understand why.  Oval was essentially Markus Popp and he was interested in the sounds that the skips on damaged CD’s made and decided to explore this further. I love the difficult ambience of this record. It made me think of a GAS/Autechre collaboration. One of the best electronic records you’ll hear, every single glitch of it.

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