Didjilution Playlists for: 7/2/2008 – 7/23/2008

The month of July, electronic-wise.

7/2/2008

Artist “Track” Release (Label) FORMAT

1.   Jasper TX “Black Sleep Pt. II” Black Sleep (Miasmah) CD [N] 2.   Fumble “Soft” Schiene (Karaoke Kalk) 12″ 3.   Conoco “Koski” Kemikoski (Sigma) 12″ 4.   Fennesz “Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels” Spire Live – Fundamentalis (Touch) LP [N] 5.   Basic Channel “e2e4 basic reshape” BCD (Basic Channel) CD [N] 6.   Niederflur “ISO” Typo (Minus) 12″ [N] 7.   Takahiro Kido “Poco!” Fleursy Music (Plop) CD [N] 8.   Musica Elettronica Viva “Friday” Friday (Alga Marghen) CD [N] 9.   Twerk “Have 10, Need 20″ MP3 [N]

Streaming audio and MP3 download available here. 

 

7/9/08

1.	Bruce Conner/Toni Basil “Breakaway” MP3 {r.i.p. Bruce}
2.	J.O. Mallander “In Reality” More Time – Hits & Variations 1968-1970 (Anoema) CD
3.	Jeremie “C’est Une Belle Journee” Bokan! Music in the Margin (Sub Rosa) CD [C] [N]
4.	Matmos “Les Folies Francaises” Supreme Balloon (Matador) CD [N]
5.	Roman Fluegel/Sven Nath “Trashbin Dance” Cocoon Compilation H (Cocoon) CD [C] [N]
6.	AER “Speakers” Project (Touch) 7″ [N]
7.	Paul Williams “Santa Pod Raceway” Santa Pod (Ash International) CD
8.	Alec Empire “I Can See The Winds Of Saturn” C-pij 02 (c-pij) 7″
9.	Byetone “Heart” Death of a Typographer (Raster-noton) CD [N]
10.	Synaesthesia “Hemisphere” Ambient Rituals (Hypnotic) CD [C]
11.	Alva Noto “U_90″ Unitxt (Raster-noton) CD [N]
12.	trg “Hoods Up” Missed Calls (Subway) 12″ [N]
13.	The Bug ft. Warrior Queen “Poison Dart” London Zoo (Ninja Tune) CD [N]
14.	Vibert/Simmonds “Open File” Rodulate (Rephlex) CD [N]

Streaming audio and MP3 download available here.

 

7/16/08

1.	Ø “Loihdittu” Oleva (Sahko) CD [N]
2.	Namlook “Environmental Atoms” Atom (Ambient World/Fax) CD [N]
3.	Mono Junk “Fade Away” Gloom (Dum) CD
4.	Jeph Jerman “Hindsight” Hindson (Con-V) CD [N]
5.	Turntable Terranova “Symplisis” Turntable Terranova (Compost) 12″
6.	Felix Kubin und das Mineralorchester “The New Weapon” Music for Theatre and Radio Play (Dekoder) CD [N]
7.	Qulfus “Mr. Baby Postman” Motown Meltdown (Gigante) CD [N]
8.	DJ Speedranch & Janski Noise “Cinematic Haunts of the Intense Claustrophobic Goosander” Mix Oscillations – Celluloid Mata Deconstructed (Noise Museum) CD
9.	DJ Scud & Christoph Fringeli “XXX” Bodysnatcher (Ambush) 12″
10.	Random “Mr. & Mrs. No Smoking Sign” Too Stoned To Sneeze Without Regretting It (Symbiotic) CD
11.	Ø “S-bahn” Oleva (Sahko) CD [N]
12.	Ando “Templ” Habitat (Bine) CD [N]

Streaming audio and MP3 download available here.

 

7/23/08

1.	The Birdwatcher “Music Minus One” Assumed Identity #3 (Assumed Idendity) 7″
2.	Kluster “#6″ Admira (Important) CD [N]
3.	Sammy Dee “Ultrastretch” Ultrastretch (Perlon) 12″ [N]
4.	Tu M’ “You?” Is That You? (Cronica) CD [N]
5.	Stephen Vitiello “Crackle Box, Thumb Piano” Box Music (12k) CD [N]
6.	The Bug “Freak Freak” London Zoo (Ninja Tune) CD [N]
7.	Caretaker “Recollected Memories from the Museum of Garden History” Recollected Memories from the Museum of Garden History (Vukzid) CD [N]
8.	Vladislav Delay “Anima” Anima (Huume) CD [N]
9.	MLZ “Crossed Swords (Alice Loop)” Crossed Swords (Alice Loop) (Modern Love) 12″ [N]

Streaming audio and MP3 download available here.

Didjilution Playlist for: 6/25/08

More new stuff than you can shake a stick at.

 

Artist “Track” Release (Label) FORMAT 

1.	Sawako + Richard Chartier + Shinjiro Yamaguchi “November 9, 2007″ November 9, 2007 (Term) CD [N]
2.	Hexlove-Faloulah “Exits Very Damp” Free Jazz From Slavery (Weird Forest) LP [N]
3.	Constant Malva “Un Ecrivain Proletaire” Magritte, groupe Surrealiste de Bruxelles et Rupture, Volume 2 (Sub Rosa) CD [C]
4.	Vladislav Delay “Anima (version)” Anima (Huume) CD [N]
5.	Exos “Inhale” Inhale (Force Inc.) 12″
6.	Dan Friel “Desert Song” Ghost Town (Important) CD [N]
7.	Richard H. Kirk “Monochrome Dream” The Number of Magic (Warp) CD
8.	Vibert/Simmonds “Rare Peel” Rodulate (Rephlex) CD [N]
9.	Ando “Optal” Habitat (Bine) CD [N]
10.	Justus Kohncke “Yacht” Safe and Sound (Kompakt) CD [N]
11.	Bruce Haack “Party Machine” Haackula (Omni) CD [N]

 

Streaming audio and MP3 downlaod of the show available here. 

I’m pleased with the new Ando release.  It’s been awhile since Taylor Deupree stretched his dancier legs – death to the bliss-outs. 

City Wanderings: Dub War w/ Skream

Last Friday was the Dub War 3rd Anniversary party over at Love, and I made a somewhat last-minute decision to head out.  Dub War can be pretty spotty sometimes, depending on the DJ and how loud they decide to turn up Love’s ridiculous sound system.  Fortunately, the show delivered on both fronts, though not until 2:15 am or so, when Skream finally started.  Until then, the sound was way too low, DJ Chef was kind of wack, and the room was way too crowded.  But, Skream took over and they turned the sound up, and if the show is awesome, a crowded room contributes to the good vibes. 

The major disappointment about these shows is that THEY PLAY PRETTY MUCH EXCLUSIVELY WHITE LABELS, MANY OF WHICH WILL NEVER SEE RELEASE.  That’s the scene for you, but it certainly doesn’t get in the way of a good time.

Here’s the end of Skream’s set – the first 2 minutes of this clip are MASSIVE.  More clips available from this cleverly named YouTuber.

 

Didjilution Playlist for: 6/18/08. Plus a long conversation about techno.

Back from LSAT time off.  Clouds have passed, life is good.  At least until I receive my score.

 

Artist “Track” Release (Label) FORMAT

1.   Pure “1/29/08″ 1/29/08 (Cronica) CD [N] 2.   Gas “Konigsforst (extended edit)” Nah Und Fern (Kompakt) LP [N] 3.   Szely “Theme 2″ Processing Other Perspectives (Mosz) CD [N] 4.   Dot Tape Dot “Making Waves” Tomavistas (Other Electricities) CD [N] 5.   Ateleia and Benjamin Curtis “Baghdad Batterie” Baghdad Batterie (Table Of The Elements) LP [N] 6.   Philip Jeck “Fanfares” Sand. (Touch) CD [N] 7.   John Cooper-Clarke “Evidently Chickentown” Snap Crackle & Bob (Epic) CD 8.   Pivot “In The Blood (Rustie Remix)” In the Blood (Warp) CD [N] 9.   The Bug featuring Killa P & Flow Dan “Skeng” Skeng (Hyperdub) 12″ 10.   Namlook “Noise Atoms” Atoms (Ambient World/Fax) CD [N]

Streaming audio and MP3 download of the show available here. 

 

Since I had three weeks off, last night’s show was entirely new music, with the exception of two tracks that I had been meaning to play on the show for some time, and as such, there’s a bunch of stuff that I’d consider worthy of discussion.  The new Gas reissue, specifically a review comparing his work to The Field’s, tipped off an e-mail conversation between myself and fellow enthusiast Momo Araki concerning Mr. Voigt’s place in the “techno” pantheon, and who, if anyone, is operating on the same terrain that he explored over a decade ago.  Forgive me for the inherent nerdiness.  A few excerpts from the convo:

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Brad:  I think it’s sadder that there aren’t really ANY relevant modern reference points for this music – a small handful of folks are in the ballpark (like the Bine label folks, and definitely Dial more than The Field or the bulk of Kompakt nowadays, maybe shitty labels that miss the point like Type), but in general, no one’s even trying to do this sort of thing.

 

Momo:  [I]s Gas really one of “techno’s towering achievements”?  Or, to put things in a more sensible context, the towering achievement of an individual predominantly known for assuming the roles of Mike Ink. (techno), Freiland (techno), Studio 1 (techno), and arguably one of today’s most-relevant-to-the-indie-crowd dance music brands, Kompakt (techno par excellence), which may, to some, be quite “ironic” indeed (while to me, is more surprising than anything, and ultimately a testament to how musically energized this man was 15-20 years ago). 

As he once said himself, Gas is pop music, and by extension, there’s probably a reason Kompakt calls it “Pop Ambient,” and I have a hunch it’s partly due to the image Kompakt has assumed and, perhaps to their consternation, been branded with by the likes of Pitchfork et al.  It’s not always about the music now, is it?   

To put bluntly, calling “Gas one of techno’s towering achievements” ignores the above bases and history, belying the whole foundation of why Gas is “Gas” and not “Wolfgang Voigt” and why it was released on Mille Plateaux as opposed to some other imprint.  And frankly, I think I’ve decided that maybe I shouldn’t expect much better, though it should always be expected, especially when they’re reissuing a freaking 4CD boxset of this crap, which was up to a couple weeks a lost artifact of electronic yesteryear.  Reintroducing Gas to the world through such a lens is an indication of how this whole minimal techno thing blew up some years ago and is currently coasting on fashion.

[...]

Not sure if I am in complete agreement with the above (namely the Dial thing.  I don’t think I could precisely raise so many reference points coming from the dance community – mayyyybe Deepchord label, whose output does “echo” (pun intended) a similar atmospheric sound, eschewing the melody, kept in line by pulsating bass drum – but again, their approach and “destination” as it were, are not necessarily aligned with Gas.  The fact is, Dial does adopt a more melodic, soft, songlike approach to dance music, but do we really hear that in Gas in the first place?   I think their commonalities are cosmetic ones, because I can’t think of many more on other levels. 

 

Brad:  I think this was my subtle point:  beyond functional techno, I’d argue that pretty much all of Deepchord and Dial is entirely cosmetic, especially compared to someone with half a brain like Gas, and while I enjoy that music, I’m not too excited.  The Studio 1 and Freiland stuff can be mindblowing, and also works as dance music to an extent – I guess Gas doesn’t and doesn’t try to, but for the sake of argument, if you’re going to consider it as “techno” (and it undeniably bears certain hallmarks), it sets an intellectual/textual standard that no one’s really reaching.  And I don’t even think Gas is the tops, as far as the Mille Plateaux world goes – snd are much smarter and also more functional.  In comparison, a dude like Rod Modell, who I actually like a decent amount, just isn’t trying very hard.  But, he’s also a more apt reference than The Field.   

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Also of note from last night’s show is the Rustie remix – dude absolutely kills it.  As I noted in a Dusted write-up of his Jagz the Smack EP last year:

The Rustie EP is a straight-up banger, dropping all pretense of atmosphere and attitude by highlighting dubstep’s too-often-obscured maximal leanings. Rustie may sacrifice grit for IDM sheen, but at least he’s aware that risks need to be taken. 

Dude kills it, and I’m glad to see him getting some attention by popping up on Warp and Hyperdub releases.  Word is that he has a vault of unreleased material.  Perhaps he would let me enter it and I could swim around like Scrooge McDuck.    

City Wanderings: Raster-Noton Night

 

The Raster-Noton crew came to town to play shows at The Bunker and Issue Project Room a few weeks ago.  I wrote a pretty lengthy review of two Raster releases last summer for Dusted which I think summarizes my thoughts on the label quite nicely.  Basically, R-N makes the most terrifying dance music that I’ve heard, for it removes all hedonism in favor of a clinical focus on the composite:  “This is a beat.  This is the texture.  Now we dance.”  If you don’t believe me, here’s Alva Noto’s description of his new album:

 

“unit—the initial working title of the album—is the name of club unit in tokyo. the way of composing the tracks in the grid of 120 pbm and out of different rhythmic units or modules recombined, as well as to express the text component of the recordings that developed in collaboration with the french sound poet anne-james chaton, changed the original title to unitxt.

after the first ten tracks that can be regarded as the core recordings of unitxt, there are 15 more tracks generated from converting pure data of programs, jpgs or other digital files into sound material. these tracks could be considered as source code ’solos’ to be played on top of the first ten tracks or to be regarded as sonified concept recordings.” 

 

It’s intensely funky, but it doesn’t properly coalesce into dance music.  The joy is in finding where it goes off the rails, or, rather, how it never quite gets dance music right:  too much repetition, not enough melody, not enough personality, certainly not enough sexiness.  As I said in that review, it’s dance music made by robots.  Or, extremely self-aware humans approximating robots that, unlike Kraftwerk, don’t have their tongues implanted in their cheeks.

 So, I went to see Frank Bretschneider, Alva Noto, Byetone, and the three of them as Signal play a few Fridays ago in a club setting.  Awesome show, awesome projections tied to the rhythms, and interesting to see a few folks fall prey to the dance – most, including yours truly, just beard-scratched.  I just visited The Bunker website, and decided that I should post a few of their pictures.  You can see me in a few.

 

I am next to kid in bright red and white striped shirt with the grey, long-sleeved thinger, talking to Daniel Blumin, who is wearing his trademark beret. 

 

Alva Noto

Frank Bretschneider

 Signal